'I don't have my little girl anymore': parents don't want swim spot where their daughter died to reopen
Dawson Creek's man-made Rotary Lake has been closed since the drowning death of a 12-year-old in 2016
The parents of a girl who died at a popular swim spot in Dawson Creek, B.C., said, during an emotional public meeting on the facility's future Monday, they don't want the man-made lake to reopen.
City council held the meeting in an effort to gauge the community's feelings on how to proceed following the 2016 incident, when a 12-year-old girl became submerged for several minutes and later died in hospital. At the time, an RCMP report said she might have become stuck in an intake grate.
Following the death, Northern Health ordered the lake drained, and it has not been refilled since.
Lake status rescinded following death
Rotary Lake was built in either 1962 or 1963, according to city documents and has acted as an accessible swimming hole in the city's Mile 0 Park since.
While artificial swimming facilities such as pools and hot tubs usually require a licence to operate in B.C., Rotary Lake was granted a special provincial exemption in 1989, allowing it to operate without lifeguards and without regular inspections from Northern Health for safety checks.
In 2017, Northern Health recommended that exemption be rescinded, pointing to the 2016 fatality and a 1994 incident in which a five-year-old drowned.
'I understand that you want your pool. I want my daughter back'
While numerous people in the community lobbied for Rotary Lake to reopen, citing its status as a free, outdoor facility and fond memories, the parents of the girl who died in 2016 said safety should be a higher priority.
"What do you think I was doing there that day? I was there for fun, swimming with my daughter. That's not the issue here," said Brandie Park, who identified herself as the mother of the 12-year-old.
Watch the public meeting
Todd questioned how Rotary Lake managed to get into a state deemed unsafe by Northern Health without anybody saying anything until after her daughter died.
"There's no closure for this. I don't have my little girl anymore. My life is completely lost. So, I understand that you want your pool. I want my daughter back."
City doesn't have funds to reopen it as a pool: mayor
City staff have estimated the cost of meeting Northern Health's requirements to reopen Rotary Lake at $500,000, plus an additional $150,000 a year for staff and maintenance.
Mayor Dale Bumstead said that is not money the city has in its budget, and, therefore, a 2018 re-opening is unlikely.
The public meeting was held to give council a better idea of how it should proceed, Bumstead told CBC Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk.
"There's a huge amount of passion," he said. "It's such an important family facility for our community in the summer."
Aside from paying for the upgrades or keeping the lake closed, Bumstead said options include converting it to a smaller wading pool or fighting Northern Health's closure order in court, though legal advisors have told him a challenge is unlikely to succeed.
However, he said council didn't want to pursue any action until getting public feedback.
"It is the residents of Dawson Creek and the business community that are paying the taxes to operate and provide this service, and we want to engage them first," he said.
Park and her husband said they would rather see city funds go toward making it more affordable for children and families to use Dawson Creek's indoor swimming facilities.
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