City of Fredericton won't fund temporary pool, mayor says

Fredericton Mayor Mike O'Brien said the city will not be funding a temporary pool for residents once the Sir Max Aitken Pool closes in the fall of 2018.

After listening to affected groups and doing some research of their own, the City of Fredericton felt the cost of running a pool was much too high.

Earlier this year the University of New Brunswick announced the Sir Max Aitken Pool would permanently close in September of 2018.

• Pool closure at UNB won't change city's priorities, says mayor 
• 'Academic mission needs to be our priority': UNB to close Sir Max Aitken Pool next year

As a result, city staff looked at multiple options for local swimmers who currently use the facility.

One possibility was putting a bubble over an existing outdoor pool, which would cost the city about $2 million to build. Another option was to build a temporary pool, another cost ranging up to $5 million, plus operating costs. 

"Council doesn't want to look at raising taxes or cutting other services to offset a temporary pool," said Mayor Mike O'Brien at Monday night's city council meeting.

Looking at other options

Instead the city will try to find ways to use the Fredericton Indoor Pool, taking in some of the current users of the Sir Max Aitken Pool.

"We can take some of the use that's at the Sir Max Aitken and fit it into the Fredericton Indoor Pool, not all of it, but some of it," said O'Brien. "We'll do as much as we can there."

While that option would help with some pool users, it won't help everyone.

When the UNB pool closes, synchronized swimming, competitive swimmers and divers won't have a pool to fit their needs.

"The competitive aquatics users in the region, they have to understand there will not be a competitive pool per se for several years," said O'Brien. "That's a reality." 

Although the city turned down the idea of finding a pool to meet the needs of competitive athletes in the short term, O'Brien said council is committed to taking on a leadership role and helping fund a pool through the regional service commission.

"The user groups have been asking the city, somebody, to take a leadership role on this instead of just shouldering it onto the community members, and that's a fair comment," said O'Brien.

"Let's go out to our neighbouring municipalities and say, 'Look are you in? And is there a formula we can work on?'" 

But Mayor O'Brien confessed that option might also not work.

The Fredericton mayor said he understands that each municipality has different issues they have to deal with, but he is still hoping for support from all communities, even if it's not monetary support. 

"I would be surprised if there would be a big uptake from the areas outside our city, but we'll ask, and maybe there's a formula that can be done."