Canada in 'facility crisis' as aging public pools face wave of major repairs or closures

I wasn't living here then, but when the Shaw Center was to be built in Saskatoon, apparently a public town hall type meeting was held to announce it and at the very end the city planners of the time said something like "Oh by the way, we're mothballing the Harry Bailey Aquatic Center, so this replaces it".

To their utter astonishment, people loudly protested and they were forced to back down and keep Harry Bailey. Gee, imagine that - people actually wanted a centrally located pool designed for actual swimming, so that they didn't have to drive out to the far west edge of town if they lived on the east side. The only other indoor pools in or close to the east side are tiny cramped "leisure" pools. (Lawson is bearable, Lakewood is thoroughly awful for laps.)

So, Harry Bailey was in service until early 2023 and is now undergoing a massive renovation. Looking forward to swimming there again next year. Last time I drove by they were installing photovoltaic panels on the steep roof.

It's always interesting how they call themselves planners yet never consider how people actually get to these places they plan, at least no further than, "oh, they'll just drive".

It's so funny, we are finding a not cheap pool in our city right now and the conservative portion of our city is up in arms. These people just want to take away, never improve.

NIMBY people delayed an ~~upgrade~~ rebuild here by a decade and the budgeted cost nearly tripled by the time it got approved.

Are you in Saskatoon and is that Harry Bailey you refer to?
- Nah, I'm on the west coast, but not surprised there's similar stories.

Municipalities ... strapped for cash, and neglecting upkeep on aging pools, now face hefty renovation or rebuild costs — or closure.

If you are pissed off about this, let your municipality (and the region that your municipality is in) know that they need to STOP widening roads, and degrow car-centric infrastructure. And that all public parking should be paid parking.

You should also tell them that housing the homeless actually saves money.

It's kind of infuriating that municipalities keep investing in money pits that will never bring a positive return to taxpayers or society, yet never have enough money for things like pools.

We need car centric infra so everyone can live in a mcmansion with a pool in the backyard!
We dont need these socialist public pools that are actually big enough for exercise and fitness! Every home should have its own 20ft long pool in the backyard and 3 SUVs on the driveway, as god intended
- Gahhh! I know you're joking, but I have seen the sort of regular maintenance the workers do at public pools and never want one of my own.
Traffic lights are one of the biggest money sinks for municipalities, cities in general have the highest cost for traffic lights while rural areas its substantially lower.
City tax payers are essentially subsidizing rural and suburban comunters.
Worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nw6qyyrTeI
- Worth a watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nw6qyyrTeI
  Man, that mirrors a conversation I had with a city councillor. We are constantly in a budget deficit because you'd have tax residents to death in order to catch up to this wasted spending.

This is the result of kicking the can down the road continually rather than spending tax money on maintaining and building the infrastructure needed by the populace. Everything ends up in a failure state but at least you paid $50 less in tax each year!

I wonder how much of the facilities boom came from the economic growth of the 50s, and 60s. Every city I've lived in has a few facilities named "Centennial" that were built in 1967. They're still in use.

Meanwhile, the 25 year old cut-off used in the article kinda corresponds to the austerity of the 1990s. The facilities I've seen built since then (in Ottawa, at least) seem to be municipally required largesse from developers.

Regardless, it’s the fault of the politicians for not earmarking enough money for repairs and maintenance. It’s not like this should be unexpected costs, and if they’re still used, where’s the maintenance slush fund?
It would be like letting lrt tracks to degrade. Just shameful.
- On the topic of LRTs, I'll bring up Toronto's favourite punchline...
  Have you heard about the LRT vehicles that are struggling to keep up with maintenance before they've seen their first revenue customers? https://www.blogto.com/city/2025/08/eglinton-crosstown-lrt-vehicles-delays/
It's another consequence of the out of control construction inflation over the last half century. Compare the various construction price index to the consumer price index - we simply cannot build things affordably anymore.

Maybe the money we pay the government in the form of taxes could go to things like I frastructure improvement and repair instead of insane salaries for public servants? Just a thought? Isn't a government supposed to plan for these things? I do at my job managing a facility with lots of infrastructure...

What roles do you think are insane salaries?
- How much does an MP or provincial politician make? Now what is the median income of a Canadian? They keep giving themselves raises and slashing services and delaying repairs and maintenance.