In the month since Victoria’s only public pool shuttered, city staff have been moving equipment to a temporary replacement facility a few blocks away. Crystal Pool is fenced off ahead of its demolition, although the city has yet to set a date. The 55-year-old building is being torn down to make way for a new facility, which is expected to be built by 2030. An interim replacement pool won’t be ready for another few months. The city is converting the former YMCA building on Broughton Street into a temporary facility, which it has renamed the Victoria Recreation Centre. The centre’s opening was delayed after a pipe burst and flooded all three floors of the building last June. “The remediation work associated with the water damage — that’s the cleanup and the hazardous material abatement — that work has been complete,” said Victoria parks and recreation director Derrick Newman. “There are some other improvements related to the pool’s mechanical systems in order to meet our permitting requirements, which are still underway.” Newman couldn’t say when the Victoria Recreation Centre would open in the new year, only that it wouldn’t be as early as January. Until an opening date is set, local swim clubs won’t be able to schedule lane time at the facility. That’s a serious concern for the Spirit Orcas, a club for adults with physical and intellectual disabilities. Spirit Orcas coach Susan Simmons said her team’s training schedule was thrown out of whack when Crystal Pool closed. “I contacted every facility that was within reasonable distance,” Simmons said. “What I was told was, ‘We will try to find you space, but our existing programs take precedence over you.’” The Spirit Orcas used to swim at Crystal Pool for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Now, the team has an hour of lane time at Colwood’s Juan de Fuca Recreation Centre on Saturdays and an hour at Saanich’s Commonwealth Place on Sundays. The disrupted training schedule puts the team at a competitive disadvantage, Simmons said. “The people doing the bookings were very empathetic to what’s going on. They tried really hard to get us space,” Simmons said. She believes her athletes should be prioritized under municipal policies. “They all have diversity, inclusion and equity policies that say they’ll take people with disabilities and low income — which the Spirit Orcas are — into consideration,” she said. “But from a rental perspective, that is not happening.” Other clubs have also had to change their operations. Crystal Pool was one of three facilities where Island Swimming offered lessons. The organization was teaching about 300 children there every week. “It reduces our capacity. It’s also reducing our staff,” said Cathy Hanan, Island Swimming’s operations manager. “We have a number of lesson instructors who are sitting on hold waiting to teach.” Hanan said she understands the delay in restoring public pool access is rooted in an effort to ensure the interim facility is safely upgraded and staffed. The city said it is working to open the Victoria Recreation Centre as quickly as possible. “We also continue to coordinate with our regional partners to ask them to explore whatever they can do to help minimize those impacts,” Newman said.
