The Inglewood pool will officially close in December, despite the final pleas of community members to preserve the neighbourhood aquatics facility.

The matter came before Calgary’s public hearing meeting of council as a housekeeping item but ended in a split vote and a debate on values leading into upcoming budget discussions. The accelerated closure was approved 8-7.

City of Calgary administration brought the item forward to confirm the accelerated closure of the Inglewood pool because an original 2021 decision to close the facility said upon completion of the expanded MNP facility. That’s not expected to happen until 2027.

After a recent assessment of the pool facility, it was determined that due to the age of the facility, “significant electrical issues” were found that could result in the electrical system failing. That prompted admin to request the closure be accelerated to 2024.

The decision would then release an estimated $600,000 for immediate repairs and $800,000 in one-time budgeted operating costs ($400K annually) back to the budget for the remaining two years of this budget cycle.

City admin also said that another $3 million in capital improvements would be needed to keep the location operating, including a new roof, upgraded plumbing, tiling and the HVAC system.

“There’s no safety risk to customers or staff, but there is potential for a full electrical systems failure, rendering the facility inoperable and immediately displacing user groups with no ability to relocate them in the short term,” said Heather Johnson, the City of Calgary’s director of recreation and social programs.  

“If we were to complete the electrical repairs, they would take a closure of approximately three months and cost in excess of $600,000. Since this facility was already approved by council for permanent closure, administration decided to accelerate the closure date to December 22 of this year, to avoid that significant investment of limited infrastructure dollars into a facility that will be closing in three years.”

‘This is not an emotional plea. It’s a practical one.’

Councillors agreed to allow the public an opportunity to have their say on the item Tuesday, with five citizens sharing their views on the pool.

Inglewood and Ramsay area residents have been vocal about the pool’s closure with a push to save it that started several years ago. They also ramped up activity when the City of Calgary first expressed its desire to accelerate the closure.

Fiona McKenzie, who has lived in Inglewood for 25 years, said that the Inglewood pool is more than just “a bag of bricks” as she said it was described by Ward 9 Coun. Gian-Carlo Carra.

She said it’s an important recreation location for seniors, low-income families, people with disabilities, single moms and school children in the nearby schools.

“It is a lifeline for their physical and mental health, and a place where they can feel connected to community,” she said.

McKenzie also said that with Calgary’s desire for greater density, it was important to ensure that appropriate facilities were available to people in these communities. She said with a projected 3,000 new dwellings for the Inglewood area in the coming years, the facility should be kept open.

“This is not an emotional plea. It’s a practical one. The city is pushing for density, and while we do need housing, we also need accessible and affordable places to be active,” she said.

“Council has previously promised to keep the Inglewood aquatic center open until MNP’s expansion was complete. I’m asking you to honour that promise and give us more time with our density on the rise.”

With the City of Calgary set to spend $600,000 on upgrades to Bob Bahan aquatic facility only to have it high on the priority list for demolition and replacement, McKenzie questioned why there was no money to help keep the Inglewood pool open.

Johnson said that while they were keeping the Bahan facility open, it had more than triple the number of annual visits, compared with the 35,000 at the Inglewood pool.

Political debate around values

Ward 12 Coun. Evan Spencer said it was a difficult report to bring forward, and certainly not a moment of celebration. The City is constantly in triage mode when it comes to dealing with facilities, he said. Especially without provincial and federal government support for recreation.

“We realize that there’s pain, that there’s stories, that there’s people that this facility is serving,” he said.

“If there isn’t free flow resources from the top down to both lifecycle and build new ones, we get into the situation we are right now where we have to have these hard triaging conversations.”

Ward 1 Coun. Sonya Sharp said this was a difficult decision on the heels of Vecova – another aquatic facility – closing in her ward. That location served 350,000 visitors annually.

Sharp said in her past, as a lifeguard at both the Shouldice and Inglewood pools, she’s seen firsthand the impact of having accessible aquatic facilities on citizens physical and emotional well-being.

She said, however, that even though the building is beyond its life cycle and the closure is inevitable and pouring money into it doesn’t seem fiscally responsible, it was important that people see their taxes in action at the community level.

“The issue today with this council is that Calgarians see these facilities as their tax dollars in action, value their hard earned dollars are paying for, and yes, consequences of our actions, spending, Calgarians tax dollars on delivering core services, and maybe not the nice to haves, but the needs to have,” Coun. Sharp said.

Ward 8 Coun. Courtney Walcott said the reason this got advanced so far so quickly was due to a $60 million operating budget cut sought five years ago. He said it’s a cautionary tale about separating the decisions made at council from the impact they have on communities.

“All I suggest is this, is that if you are the type of councillor that has been advocating for these mass cuts to administration, then the sympathy that we might express in these moments is kind of lost, because this is what’s happening,” he said.

“When you do something years ago for the purpose of a grandstanding, then this is the cost of it.”

Ward 3 Coun. Jasmine Mian also said it’s hard to listen to some councillors who want to keep the facility open, when they don’t want to pony up when the time comes to fund these projects.

“The same ones who approve driving down the tax rate that always leads to cuts in recreation are now the ones who are going to say, ‘No, we shouldn’t close it,’” Coun. Mian said.

“So, it’s really hard to accept from just a values perspective, and yeah, when we drive the tax rate down, it’s always going to have implications for residents.”

Mian also told residents to get angry and start protesting if they want to see recreation rise on Calgary city council’s priority list.

The Inglewood pool will close on Dec. 22, 2024.