Strong attendance at Transcona Aquatic Centre leads to call for more Winnipeg water parks

Lineups and capacity crowds at Transcona's new water park have led the area councillor to push for similar facilities in other Winnipeg neighbourhoods.

During the first 10 days since the Transcona Aquatic Centre opened on June 30, thousands of people have paid to visit the $5.8-million facility, according to figures provided by the city to Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt.

Average daily attendance has been 673, almost double the maximum occupancy for any given time. Lineups begin forming one hour before the facility opens.

"They're coming from all over Winnipeg ... and outside the city as well," Wyatt said on Monday outside the aquatic centre, which took three years for the city to build. "It tells me there's a pent up demand."​

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On Wednesday, at the final council meeting before the summer break at city hall, Wyatt plans to move a motion calling for the establishment of a new capital reserve to help build similar water parks in other older city neighbourhoods.

The motion, which may be referred to the 2018 budget process, calls for the city to set aside $2.5 million to $3 million a year over a decade to help build five or six more water parks on the scale of the Transcona facility.

Wyatt surmises the city could use the same design and save money in the process.

"We now have the plans. We now have the designs. We don't have to pay for those soft costs all over again," he said. "We know we're going to have to renew a lot of these older pools and wading pools in the next 10 years or so. We might as well do it now."

More often than not, motions by opposition councillors receive little traction from the mayor's inner circle. But council protection, community services and park chair Mike Pagtakhan (Point Douglas) said he supports the general premise of Wyatt's idea.

Pagtakhan also would like it folded into a forthcoming review of Winnipeg recreational amenities.

On Monday, the first Transcona Aquatic Centre patrons began lining up shortly after noon, an hour before the facility opened.

Jeff Didham drove 22 kilometres from St. James to bring his 10-year-old daughter Madison to the water park. 

"We've waited a long time for this facility to open. Having something like this in Transcona, there's no reason why it couldn't be in other places as well," he said.

Wyatt believes the strong attendance makes a case for more water parks, even in a city where the summers are short and hot weather is ephemeral.

"This was the first facility of its kind. Now that we've built it, we've shown it can be done, how popular it is and how it works," he said.