The City of Victoria has been talking about the need for the replacement of the Crystal Pool for almost as long as the pool has been in Central Park. A little over a year ago, I wrote a piece on the possible option of moving the pool to the parking lot for the Arena. I still think that is a viable option for it if we had to build new, but the more I think about it, the more I question why we are being sold on new at all!

Two of my kids have swimming lessons at Crystal Pool and I would be the first to admit that in its current state, it is not a glamorous place. What it is for me and my needs though is functional. I recognise that this is at the expense of others that cannot use the pool as it is not as accessible in its current state. There are not appropriate change rooms for everyone to feel comfortable using the pool and they are located at the top of stairs. When it comes to the pool itself, there are again accessibility challenges. That is not all of the problems either. The main plant that filters and heats the pool apparently needs to be replaced as well. As it stands now the pool needs to close for a month each year for maintenance and it is costing about a million dollars a year to keep the current pool operating. All of these challenges certainly would have you think that we need a brand new pool, but do we?

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The current pool was built in 1971, there are few massive public infrastructure projects we would consider rebuilding every fifty years, but here we are. The current plan from council is projected to cost 70 million dollars. Based on the current need of a million dollars a year to keep it running we can keep the current pool as is for another 70 years for the same cost as building new which very likely will “need” an expensive replacement in another fifty years, or less. So how did we get here?

There are three reasons I think that we are being sold on the need for replacement rather than refurbishment.

1. Need to Stay Open - There is a sense that the pool must stay open continuously during the building of a new pool. I will discuss an option to mitigate this in later, but first off we somehow survive a month each year with the pool closed for maintenance. While the pool is closed there are multiple other recreation centres across the city that are open. There are many ways to deal with this issue.

2. Political Points - There is something about being able to build something new and spectacular that politicians have a hard time staying away from. This was much of the reason why we got the new Johnson Street Bridge. Refurbishment is never glamourous. On an individual basis people often choose new things over buying used and fixing up. Given our current need for fiscal restraint in the city and couple that with the environmental benefit of fixing up rather than sourcing all new materials, refurbishment could end up being the daring and bold choice for a politician if they want to differentiate themselves.

3. Contractor Tunnel Vision - While it has not occurred in this case yet. We are often told that we need to build new things by the very people that end up building them for us. This was the case with the sewage plant here (which I do support just FYI) and there was some crossover in contractors who worked on the bridge options and those that worked on the project. There is a lot of money on the table here which encourages people to get us to spend it. We don’t have to.

So what can we do instead? Easy, we come up with a four year renovation plan. Each year we close the pool for a couple of months and work on parts of the construction that require the entire place to be closed. For the rest of the year build parts of the project that can be done while the pool is open. As an example, you could easily close the current lobby and move the offices and reception into some onsite ATCO trailers and in the first year build a new lobby that could include new accessible change rooms. Year two take the now unneeded change rooms and build the community space or whatever else needs to get done.

This is doable and cost effective. The cost savings can be used on other needed civic projects or put into a housing trust. At the same time we would be doing the right thing for the environment.

If you get the chance let city council know that refurbishment is the only sensible and responsible option both environmentally and fiscally. Email them here: mayorandcouncil@victoria.ca