The Inglewood Aquatic Centre is set to close its doors for good this year, after a reprieve that kept its doors open for nearly an additional five years.

The City of Calgary announced the closure of the pool would be coming on Dec. 22, 2024, after declining use, rising operating costs and extensive required repairs were needed to consider keeping the facility open.

Heather Johnson, the Director of Recreation and Social Programs at the City of Calgary said that there was an expected $600,000 cost to repair electrical systems, with the potential of further costs to modernize the facility.

“Regrettably, we’ve recently learned that significant electrical repairs are required across all city-operated aquatics facilities, including the Inglewood Aquatic Centre,” she said.

“I want to assure you that there’s no safety risk to our customers or staff accessing the facility however, there is a risk the electrical system could unexpectedly fail, resulting in the facility being inoperable and causing a disruption to our user groups and customers.”

Johnson said that the decision to close the facility permanently in December removes the need to undertake the closure of the pool for three months and the cost for repairs.

She said the closure would create “the opportunity for potential redevelopment including new housing and stimulating the local economy.”

Under a restrictive covenant signed when the City of Calgary began overseeing the pool in the 1960s from its builders, Calgary Malting and Brewing, the land the facility sits on would be returned to Matco Group of Companies.

The City of Calgary presented other city-owned and non-profit facilities as alternatives for users: MNP Community and Sport Centre located on Macleod Trail SE and operated by the Lindsay Park Sports Society, the Bob Bahan Aquatic and Fitness Centre located on 14 Avenue SE in Forest Lawn, and the Renfrew Aquatic Centre located on 13 Avenue NE in Renfrew.

The MNP Centre, which has an $85 million expansion planned, was recommended by Johnson as the ideal replacement location for users.

“We’re very aware of the need to provide aquatics in the inner city, and the first choice was the investment at MNP. [It] is already a great facility, but many of us think of it as maybe performance and competition oriented although it’s publicly available for all types of activities,” she said.

She said that consultations with users about a potential closure occurred in 2019 during the initial indication that the pool would be closed was a desire for more aquatic amenities like waterslides and hot pools.

“At that point, we underwent a significant engagement process with the public as a whole but particularly with residents and community associations in Inglewood and Ramsey and the main thing that we learned or confirmed through that process was the desire for family-friendly amenities in the community. We think the expansion at MNP is going to be a great addition to the recreation opportunities available for residents in this part of the city,” Johnson said.

Closure given a reprieve that was extended due to the pandemic

The City of Calgary provided one-time funding in 2019 to continue to operate the Inglewood Aquatic Centre, giving it a two-year reprieve from an overall $60 million cut to the City of Calgary budget.

Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra said that he had become convinced that the City of Calgary was correct about its initial facility assessment.

“The city was correct in its global assessment, that the Inglewood pool was not a smart financial bet for the city’s provision of pools to citizens. It is too small, it is too old, it is too problematic, and then if we had a bunch of land there we could build a bunch of things around that pool,” Carra said.

“We made a commitment to deliver pool services to inner city families… at the MNP Center. We looked at a lot of opportunities like the Lilydale site. We looked at where would the ideal recreational pool-based recreational offerings for inner city families would go, because the inner city families need that, and at the end of the day, the MNP was chosen.”

He said that at the time he had put forward a use-it-or-lose-it message to local residents, and that by-and-large they had responded by using the pool.

“Having said that when we say the community, we’re not necessarily talking about individual users from Inglewood who go for an occasional swim, we’re talking about the broader community of pool users,” Carra said.

“All of our pools are subsidized, all of our pools are holes in the ground that we throw money into. It’s just the amount of money that we’re throwing into the Inglewood pool is significantly more than the other pools, and that’s a problem.”

In a report provided to Calgary City Council in 2019, the Inglewood pool was 71 per cent taxpayer-supported, with a cost recovery of 29 per cent from users—with an approximate $10.50 per user visit being paid for by taxpayers.

The number of visits then was 55,000 per year, versus an average of 91,000 per year at all of the city’s Tier 1 flat water pools without full amenity complements.

Johnson said that in 2024, pool usage was still an outlier compared to other city facilities, and although the numbers weren’t directly comparable it was about half the number of users of the Killarney or Glenmore aquatic centres.

Closure angers Inglewood residents

Inglewood resident Lonnie Starling's was dismayed to hear of the permanent closure of the Inglewood pool come December.

"My reaction is that it's very counter-intuitive to their plans to promote densification with this blanket rezoning. It doesn't make any sense to take away amenities if you're planning on trying to attract more people to the inner city," she said.

She said that the costs presented by the City of Calgary to do repairs at the pool and to keep it open didn't make sense in comparison to other projects like MNP.

"They were talking about pumping millions of dollars into the private facility MNP... and they're quoting $600,000 to repair Inglewood, which is nothing," she said.

"If they're going to also increase our property taxes and also expect us to pay for a new hockey arena, then they could maybe keep our facilities open and fit, and put the money into the facilities instead of asking us to pay for all this other stuff and take away amenities. That's bullshit."

Starling said that she and her children have been regular users of the pool and that its closure makes it difficult for Inglewood residents—especially local children—to access pool facilities if they don't have a car.

"During the summer, everybody just walks there. They're trying to promote the city as a walkable city, then why on earth would you not have a hub of amenities and recreation and fitness that people can walk to? Then they're promoting all this densification with these new row houses and basement suites and secondary suites? Where are these people supposed to go work out? That doesn't make any sense at all," Starling said.

An isochrone analysis using the Geoapify Location Platform service by LWC, looking at the distance that individuals could walk to from the Inglewood Aquatic Centre and other suggested pools within 30 minutes at an average adult walking speed showed that none of the other suggested pools were accessible within that timeframe.

A walking distance from the MNP Centre at that same speed would cover the community of Ramsay, and Inglewood up to 14 Street SE, if the walking time was increased to one hour. A limit of 30 minutes included a small portion of houses in Ramsay along Spiller Road SE and Ramsay School.

Limited use due to limited hours says pool user

Starling also disputed the City's number of users of the facility, saying that the limited number of hours it was open in the morning and the limited times available for swimming affected how many people could use the pool.

The Inglewood Aquatic Centre opens at 11 a.m. on Monday and Wednesdays, and 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday and Thursday. It opens at 8 a.m. on Friday, and at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

"If you want to look at the usage of this pool, and I went swimming yesterday, the lane swim on Wednesdays is 11 to 12. That's the first time you can lane. There was a lineup out the door of people trying to get in. It was packed like limiting, they can't say the usage is down and also limit the usage time," she said.

"The people who swim in the morning, the people like me who swim in between our workspace, it's packed, but it's only packed because that time is so limited. They've cut down their lanes sometimes, and there's nowhere else to lane swim in the inner city now Beltline is closed."

Rebecca O'Brien, Executive Director of the Inglewood BIA and also a resident of Inglewood, said that it was short-sighted to close the pool.

"Actually the first thing I did when I moved to Inglewood in 2005 is I went to the local swimming pool with my kids. I think it's incredibly short-sighted to close an important public amenity like a swimming pool, when you're having a massive density-oriented project roll-out adjacent to it with no plans for public amenities," O'Brien said.

"When you're looking at increasing housing and density and bringing in the Green Line, and all those important factors that are game-changing for a neighbourhood, and then not only not increasing the amenities but closing down the existing public amenities, then you're actually pulling out of the social contract."

She said that the $600,000 price tag to cover the electrical repairs for the facility was a drop in the bucket to keep an accessible amenity available for local residents.

"Public amenities are also really desperately needed for healthy communities. And I'm sorry, an 11 kilometer round trip to the closest public amenity is pretty restrictive."