Winnipeg's draft budget includes plan to close several pools, put in splash pads

The City of Winnipeg could close several of its aging pools and replace some of them with splash pads over the next six years.

The city's preliminary 2024 budget, released Wednesday, includes a proposal to replace or decommission 20 outdoor wading pools and open 10 new splash pads at a cost of about $20 million.

The Eldon Ross indoor pool and Happyland and Windsor Park outdoor pools would also be closed in the coming years.

Finance chair Coun. Jeff Browaty said these pools are near the end of their life cycles and are more expensive to operate due to staff and maintenance costs. 

"They're 50, 60, 70-year-old pieces of infrastructure, and they need significant investment," he said. 

It's also been difficult to find enough staff to keep the pools open, something splash pads don't require, Browaty said. 

"We're having pools that we can't open because we can't get the attendants," he said. 

"One of the nice things about spray pads is they do need attendance by staff to ensure that they're safe and that everything is working, but you don't need somebody there on ongoing basis." 

The plan is to build and open the new splash pads before the pools close, according to the draft budget.

Four wading pools will be closed this year in neighbourhoods where new splash pads are set to open soon, at the Cordova, Bronx Park, Valour (Clifton site) and Turtle Island community centres. 

Other wading pools that are on the chopping block include those at the Winakwa Community Centre, Tyndall Park Community Centre, Elmwood Winter Club, Centennial Park, and Bruce Park. 

The 2024 preliminary budget allocates $150,000 for the decommissioning of the city's aging aquatic facilities, while the city plans to spend close to $20 million over the next six years to build the new splash pads. 

St. Boniface resident unhappy 

The proposed closure of the Happyland Park outdoor pool in St. Boniface does not sit well with Teresa Cwik of the South St. Boniface Residents Association, who says the association has been fighting to get it repaired for years. 

"We have nothing to replace it," she said. "It's an outdoor pool. This is where the kids go to learn to swim. It needs to be fixed."

She said the pool is popular not only among kids during the summer months, but also adults in the area who don't have many other options for recreation nearby and already lost the Norwood Pool five years ago. 

"Where are the adults going to go?" said Cwik. "They're not going to be running around a splash pad." 

St. Boniface Coun. Matt Allard said he was unaware of the plan to close the Happyland pool, and he hopes to convince his council colleagues to reverse it. 

"These pools are in working-class neighbourhoods and they have free admission, and I think it's the type of programming that we need young people and families to be engaged in."

But Coun. Evan Duncan (Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood), who is also the chair of Winnipeg's community services committee, said the pools have had low attendance in recent years, while the splash pads have been very popular. 

"I think that we need to make a decision here, if we're going to invest into old infrastructure or turn the corner here and invest into new infrastructure that serves a larger part of the community," he said. 

Eldon Ross Pool closure would be 'huge loss'

Closure of the Eldon Ross Pool would be another blow to a neighbourhood that lost its community centre years ago, Brooklands resident Lori Langver told CBC News.

"I've lived in this area for all my 50 years, and the sense of community I had and felt growing up has slowly been stripped away," Langver said in a message.

For her children, the pool was a place to exercise, gather and play with other kids, she said.

"Eldon Ross is a very important part of our community," Langver said. "It makes me sad for the younger generations."

In an emailed statement, Brooklands School principal Samantha Amaral said the pool is "well-loved." It's possible closure would be "detrimental" and "heartbreaking" for the community, she said.

"This facility is needed.… Without it, there are very few after school or weekend recreational opportunities," Amaral said.

Michelle Kirkbride, the community development co-ordinator at nearby NorWest Co-op, agrees.

The resource centre takes children to the pool for free swim programs every week, she said Wednesday.

"I know that probably this decision for them didn't come easy, but that being said, we also know that this will be a huge loss for this community. It's a community that has few services in it already," Kirkbride said.

The cost and location of exercise programming are already barriers for people in Brooklands, she said. If the Eldon Ross Pool closes, the nearest one would be a bus ride away, Kirkbride said.

The nearest community centre, Weston Community Centre, is east across Keewatin Street, a dangerous walk for young children, said Brooklands resident Kayla Trapp, who has four kids aged three to 12.

Should the city go ahead with its plan, Kirkbride said she hopes it will offer more programs at Weston to make up for the closure.

Sherbrook Pool review 

The draft budget also includes plans for a four-year review of the Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool that would analyze monthly usage, yearly revenue and operating costs.

There are no immediate plans to close the pool in the inner-city Spence neighbourhood, but the city does need to measure how or if it can afford to keep it open in the long term, Duncan said. 

"We're looking at it down the road to see what makes sense financially there. The prices continue to escalate to maintain that pool," he said. 

The city's standing policy committees will hold public hearings on the draft budget in a series of meetings beginning March 1.

Council will meet to consider the budget on March 20.