New Westminster city council is testing the waters to see what type of facility it will build to replace Canada Games Pool.
As the city begins to wade into planning for a replacement of Canada Games Pool, council has been going on field trips and visiting some of newer facilities in the Lower Mainland.
“There’s been a lot of new pools built over the last five to 10 years in the Vancouver area,” said Mayor Jonathan Cote. “It’s been great going to every pool and getting their experiences as to what’s working, some things we may want to avoid, the latest trends.”
The pool tour has included stops at Grandview Heights Aquatic Centre in Surrey, the Fred Randall Pool at the Edmonds Community Centre in Burnaby, the West Vancouver Aquatic Centre, the Hillcrest Aquatic Centre in Vancouver, the Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex in Coquitlam and Watermania in Richmond.
Dean Gibson, the city’s director of parks, culture and recreation, said those facilities are “all over the board” in terms of their offerings, and range from about $30 million to more than $60 million.
“Swimming pools regardless of their size and features are relatively expensive undertakings,” he said. “This will be, after Anvil Centre, probably one of our larger capital investments the city is making in this current term of council and its members.”
Gibson said the city will launch its ‘conversations with the community’ within the next few weeks to give citizens a chance to weigh in on what they’d like to see in the future facility.
“What’s working well, what’s not working well in those operations, are there areas for improvement? Ultimately there are things like looking to the future – what sorts of things ought to be considered in planning for the eventual replacement of the pool itself?” he said. “I am sure the members of the public that use those facilities on a regular basis will be eager to share that information.”
Gibson said the city will also reach out to people who aren’t patrons, as it will require a significant capital investment by the city.
The public engagement process will include an online survey, meetings with stakeholder groups and community organizations and open houses. As the survey results are tabulated, it’s expected that some common themes may arise, and the city will have special focus group sessions to dive into the details of those issues.
Gibson said the city’s intention is to gather enough information to submit an application for a federal infrastructure grant by the end of the year but stressed it would be a “big step” to get from there to having a precise vision of what the facility would look like.
“We won’t be down to picking paint colours, but we will have answered some of the questions like: How many bodies of water might be within the facility? What the sizes of those might be? Is there going to be a fitness area or not, and if there is how big might it be? Are the community centre components contemplated as part of phase one or might they be considered in a future phase?” he said. “Those are the big questions we will have to answer over the course of the next several months.”
Last November, the city agreed money would be better spent replacing Canada Games Pool rather than refurbishing the existing facility.
“Council is aware of the aging condition of the facility itself. We don’t have an indefinite period of time with which to make decisions to move forward,” Gibson said. “I’m sure the public input will probably reveal the degree of urgency the public is feeling about continuing to move ahead as well.”
