During the first part of the City of Regina’s monthly Council meeting, Council decided to open up three of the city’s pools.
Two indoor pools and one outdoor pool will be open as long as provincial guidelines allow it. Pools that will be reopened are the North West Leisure Centre, Lawson Aquatic Centre, and the Regent Pool.
Council also decided to tentatively set a date for the opening of the Sandra Schmirler Leisure Centre,if staffing permits. These pools could open as early as July 6th.
Mayor Michael Fougere says that only one outdoor will be opened this year because it will take too long to get the others ready.
“The other ones are simply not able to be done, they need much more repair,” said Fougere. “In terms of staff being able to switch over from indoor pools to outdoor, just makes it harder to say that.”
Fougere says that he knows the decision to only open one outdoor pool will be disappointing for people, but the City is doing everything they can.
“We’re doing the best we can,” said Fougere. “These are extraordinary times and getting one pool open is better than having none open at all, for outdoor pools. But we still have our indoor pools opening up this year.”
He adds that in a perfect world, all outdoor pools would be open right now, but in order to keep everyone healthy, the decision had to be made to only open one.
The City has set aside an opening date for the North West Leisure Centre of July 6th, despite the province not giving the go-ahead to open indoor pools. Fougere says that they decided to set the date, to show that the city is ready.
“The public knows there will be pools, that’ll be able to be used, should the province give the green light for indoor pools,” said Fougere. “We are ready to do that.”
City Council is set to reconvene to complete this month’s agenda, including discussions on the Globe Theatre and the City’s tax bylaw, at a later date.
