By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

"dismayed"

Aquatic Centre committee boiling over no funding for new pool

Oct 31, 2019 | 4:37 PM

The group pushing for a long sought after aquatic centre for Red Deer says it’s dismayed with the recent decision to remove funding for it from the City’s 10-year capital plan.

Brian Gallaway, chair of the Central Alberta Aquatic Centre (CAAC) committee, says the aquatics community is being treated very unfairly.

“Over the last 35 years, Red Deer built four new indoor hockey rinks and no new lap pools. When the Collicutt (Centre) was built, a new NHL-sized ice surface suitable for training and competition was built, while the aquatics community received a paddling pool unsuitable for even the most basic training,” he points out.

“When the city was bidding on the Canada Winter Games, CAAC was told how good the Games would be for the aquatic community. In the end, hockey received two new rinks (an Olympic size rink at RDC, and a rebuilt NHL size rink at Servus Arena), while swimmers received a bus ticket to Calgary.”

Gallaway is referring to the fact that the artistic swimming competition for the 2019 Canada Winter Games in Red Deer was held in Calgary.

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He says Red Deer has been left with the worst competitive aquatics facilities in western Canada.

“The administration’s reasoning for prioritizing the Dawe rink is over concerns about the future of Kinex arena. However, we believe their reasoning is faulty,” he says. “If the Kinex fails, Red Deer would merely be returning to the level of ice we had in 2016, whereas with our aquatics facilities, we already have significant deficiencies. If we were to lose one of them, Red Deer would have less pool space than we had in the 1970s.

“We believe our turn is overdue. More importantly, the public believes it is our turn, as the aquatic centre was ranked as the #1 priority in the city’s comprehensive amenities study,” Gallaway says.

In 2014, The City of Red Deer did a community amenities report. A multi-use aquatic centre/50 metre pool was identified by the public as one of the most desired new amenities.

City Manager Allan Seabrooke says the economic reality is such that a $100 million aquatic facility “simply isn’t possible.”

“In the 10-year plan, some of the larger ticket items that were left had to be removed; almost a billion dollars’ worth of projects to meet our debt limit capacity,” he explains. “Debt limit capacity relates to the amount of revenue a city has coming in, and with the current economic challenges and literally no growth that we have, our ability to take on more debt is limited.”

If federal and provincial grants fail to come through, the $30+ million Dawe twinning project could also be on the chopping block, he adds. The interest on a $100 million facility, Seabrooke notes, would be around $4.5 million annually, plus operating.

Last year, city council agreed to move up the funds for detailed design to take place in 2019, some of which has occurred, Seabrooke confirms. Dollars for actual construction were left in the slots beyond 2023 until this year.

Seabrooke and Mayor Tara Veer acknowledge and empathize with the swim community’s frustrations. Veer says it’s important to understand, however, that there has been a substantial shift in the last year affecting how much municipalities can rely on grant funding.

“Even though the City appreciates the provincial government will be legislating stable predictable grant funding for municipalities, there are cuts to grant funding (MSI) that will have a real impact on the capital plan,” she says. “Councils across the province, when their administrations table budgets, will absolutely be in the same scenario.”

Seabrooke concludes by saying talks will continue with the aquatic community, including to perhaps extend hours at facilities where swim clubs practice and train.