Bad decisions cause of our pool problem

Earlier this week, as Brandonites sweated under the hot sun, it was announced that the city’s only outdoor pool — the Kinsmen Centennial Pool at Rideau Park — would remain closed until necessary repairs are completed.

The pool was originally slated to begin operations on June 15, but hasn’t opened yet this year due to a series of problems that have emerged at the 57-year-old facility.

City staff are working to get the pool up and running, but it’s almost the middle of July and the time of greatest need may have already passed.

Temperatures have been uncomfortably hot this week, but could be a lot lower in the coming weeks. In the meantime, two additional swims will be offered at the 45-year-old Sportsplex pool Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 7 to 9 p.m.

That’s a band-aid solution that won’t come close to fixing the problem.

Given the age and condition of the Kinsmen pool, and that fact it does not have the capacity to handle user demand in the city on hot days, it’s fair to ask how this mess happened.

Mayor Jeff Fawcett told the Sun this week that “The pools have been an issue for a long time, to the point that we only have one pool, and it is an old, old, pool. So that’ll be discussions council is going to have moving forward, and we’ll have to see how the public feels about that, under the budget circumstances … Ultimately, somewhere along the line, we’re going to have to make a decision. This pool is not going to go forever.”

No kidding, Mr. Mayor.

Many of you will recall that Brandon had three outdoor pools until at least the mid-1970s — at Curran Park, the Kiwanis pool on the Keystone Centre grounds, and the Kinsmen pool at Rideau Park — as well as several “paddling pools” at locations throughout the city.

At some point after that time, Curran Park was sold by the city to a private owner and the pool at that site was subsequently closed. The city’s paddling pools were the next to go, and have been gradually replaced with spray parks. In 2019, our city council of the day decided to close the Kiwanis pool instead of paying for repairs to keep it operating. It was later demolished.

After all that, the Kinsmen pool, which has been plagued by a range of issues over the past number of years, is the only outdoor facility for Brandonites to swim at during the summer.

The city’s population has almost doubled since the 1970s and yet we have far fewer swimming options. And, with the ongoing closure of the Kinsmen pool, we currently have no options.

That’s no accident. In fact, the current situation is the result of a plan set in motion by the previous city council when it adopted its Recreation and Community Facilities Master Plan in 2019.

Under that plan, the Kinsmen and Kiwanis pools would effectively be allowed to die of old age, and would be replaced by a new outdoor aquatic complex.

In 2022, that council issued a request for proposals to evaluate the feasibility of constructing such a facility. The MNP consulting firm was hired to conduct the study and a Jan. 12, 2023 report in the Sun indicated that “The final report from a feasibility study on whether Brandon can build and support an outdoor aquatic complex is expected to be delivered this April.”

That report may have been delivered to city hall by that date, but I have found no evidence that its contents have ever been disclosed to Brandonites.

Rather, the public learned in January 2024, during city council’s budget deliberations, that the proposed outdoor aquatic centre was deemed a “secondary amenity” and is no longer under consideration.

In other words, city council allowed our existing pools to die (by deliberately deciding to not do long-term repairs and upgrades that would sustain their usefulness) because they assumed a new pool was on the way, and now that pool may never happen.

That’s unacceptable in a city the size of Brandon.

What makes it worse, however, is that a staggering $20 million in taxpayer dollars is being spent on an outdoor soccer complex on the flood plain north of the river — including a $3.8-million “clubhouse” and significant annual operating costs — yet city council concluded last year that it can’t afford a new outdoor pool for Brandonites to escape the heat.

In 2009, Souris built its aquatic complex for $1.1 million. In 2011, Wawanesa opened its new swimming pool, at a similar cost. What was Brandon doing at that time? What is it doing now?

The square root of nothing. Even adjusting for construction cost inflation, we could have easily built two pools like the one they have in Souris for far less than what the soccer field is costing us.

Heck, we could have built two new “Souris-size” pools in 2010 for less than the cost of the new soccer clubhouse.

We could have avoided the problem we now have, but prior city councils either didn’t see the looming problem or didn’t care enough to take the necessary steps to prevent it from happening.

Yet again, Brandonites are stuck with the cost and consequences of dumb decisions.