Community bids to save UVic pool facing $1.5M repair bill

A former Olympic swimmer leading the charge to save the University of Victoria's McKinnon Pool is asking school officials to reconsider their decision to shutter the facility. 

Wayne Kelly said pool users were caught off guard last month when UVic suddenly announced online that the campus's only swimming pool would close for good by Sept. 15 because it needs $1.5 million in "upgrades."

"We knew UVic pool was getting old, but there was nobody telling us that it was in need of repairs," said Kelly.

"All of the user groups, students, staff, alumni, community members and swim teams were really shocked.

"What's really awful for us is that there was no opportunity for us to say, 'let's come together and work as a community on a plan to keep this pool open.'" 

The 50-year-old pool "has reached the end of its natural lifecycle and is now too costly to maintain," according to the July 2 announcement.

"The university has to balance the significant cost of upgrading and maintaining the facility alongside investments in infrastructure and programming that benefit the entire campus community," Nicole Greengoe, UVic Executive Director of Wellness, Recreation and Athletics, was quoted as saying.

Kelly met with UVic officials who told him the $1.5 million figure is based on a list of repairs put together by university staff.

He also started an online petition to save the pool that had over 3,500 signatures as of Monday afternoon.

The petition caught the eye of Victoria Times Colonist editor and publisher Dave Obee, who has stepped forward with an offer to help raise the needed funds in the community.

'If $1.5M is raised, will the pool stay open?'

"We are good at this sort of thing," he said in an email to CBC News.

"We already do two major fundraisers a year — a Christmas one to help those in need and a literacy one every spring. In 2020 we helped raise $7 million to help people deal with the economic mess caused by the pandemic." 

But he said before a pool fundraiser can be launched, "we would also need an answer to a basic question: If that $1.5 million is raised, will the pool stay open?"

Obee said he sent emails to UVic president Kevin Hall and leaders in the athletic department in the first week of July, but has yet to receive a response.

CBC has asked to interview Hall, Greengoe, or a university representative familiar with the decision to close the pool, but was told no one was available.

Local and provincial politicians are also looking at the issue, including MLA Fin Donnelly, a former UVic varsity swimmer.

"As an alumnus ... I'm hoping to see a pool facility continue at the University of Victoria," Donnelly told CBC News. "I swam at UVic in the 1980s and swimming was critical to my academic success."

Kelly, also a former UVic varsity swimmer who went to the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, has now filed a freedom of information request to find out what repairs are needed and to learn more about how UVic officials arrived at their decision to close the pool.

He says the best outcome would be to keep the current pool open for a few years while the university plans for a replacement.

"I know we have the community support. Now we just need to get the university support," said Kelly.

Obee, who is not a swimmer and has never used McKinnon Pool, said his interest is driven by an overarching concern that Greater Victoria is losing too many amenities.

"Meanwhile, more people are arriving. At some point we need to start defending what we already have," he said.