Since opening in November 1996, the North Peace Leisure Pool has been plagued with on-going maintenance issues. These have led to repeated shutdowns for repairs to some of the features including the water slides and the now decommissioned hot tub. At the same time, the population of Fort St. John and the surrounding area has grown, increasing pressure on the facility to the point where it is no longer able to properly meet the region’s needs.
Partners in the current pool facility, the Peace River Regional District (Areas B and C), the City of Fort St. John and the District of Taylor have gotten together again to plan a new aquatic centre to improve recreation services to the region and meet its recreational needs for the future.
This process began in 2018 with an initial round of community engagement to find out what sort of amenities residents of the four partner communities felt were needed in the region. After a two-year pause due to the pandemic, the North Peace Leisure Pool Replacement Committee was back in 2022 with more engagement sessions, prior to developing the feasibility study in 2023.
Using the input they heard from the first two engagement sessions, the PRRD has developed three options for a multi-use facility that will combine aquatic and indoor recreation spaces.
The cost of the options depends upon the facilities offered – the more frills added, the more it’s going to cost. Like the current leisure pool, it will be paid for mainly through the property taxes of the residents of Area B, Area C, Taylor and Fort St. John.
Chair of the committee, Trevor Bolin said that the PRRD will take out a loan with a 20-year amortization to construct the facility regardless of which option is chosen, which they hope to offset with grants.
“It will be by a loan amendment which is why the referendum is needed,” said Bolin, “and then offset with any grants that we will be fortunate enough to obtain.”
Option 1 is an Enhanced Aquatic Facility, similar to the current pool; with a leisure pool, hot tub, steam and sauna, water slide, two 25m lap pools, a multi-purpose room and indoor social space. The estimated cost for this project is $136 million, and costs $5.9 million per year to operate.
Option 2 is the same as Option 1 but has one 50m lap pool rather than 25m ones. This option is expected to cost $284 million to construct, and $8.8 million per year to operate.
Option 3 is similar to the Eastlink Centre in Grande Prairie, which many people expressed an interest in during the first two public engagement sessions. This option has all the features of Option 1, plus a sports field and two gymnasiums. Its estimated construction cost is $280 million, with an annual operating cost of $6.6 million.
At last week’s PRRD board of directors meeting, some members of the public expressed concern about the costs of the new facility and questioned whether a new one is even needed.
Fort St. John resident Carol Kube felt that this is not a suitable time to build such a large facility.
“This is the first time in over 20 years that the population of BC is declining, and if you look around our community, you’ll see all the for-sale signs on houses, because people can’t afford to live here anymore,” she said.
Another Fort St. John resident, Gwen Bourdon asked where the PRRD plans to put the new pool.
In response to questions from The Broken Typewriter, Bolin said that two possible locations for the new leisure pool have been shortlisted, but nothing will be finalized until after this last round of public engagement.
Bourdon also wondered by the current facility couldn’t simply be repaired. “I can’t see that repairs would be over $136 million.”
In selecting the options, the PRRD considered not only what amenities the public requested during the first two engagement sessions, but also the cost to taxpayers. There was a potential fourth option, but it was dropped because the costs were too high.
For each of the three possible options, the annual cost to taxpayers would be at least double the current rate, because the costs of materials, labour and the effect of inflation have increased since the current facility was built in 1996.
A 2018 North Peace Leisure Pool replacement study showed that although the current facility has an annual planned target capacity of 350,800, due to the poor state of the facility and lack of amenities, only 118,753 total annual swims were recorded. Since then, the hot tub was permanently closed and removed.
If all goes well, the referendum will be held later this year, and if approved, construction will begin in 2025, and be completed in 2029.
“It will be a facility that benefits the entire region,” said Bolin. “This is the next 50 years of facilities in Fort St. John.”
Following the completion of the new facility, Bolin said that the current pool will be decommissioned and the PRRD will decide what to do with the building.
Starting April 13, the PRRD is hosting engagement sessions on-line and in Taylor, Fort St. John, Area B and Area C to hear what people think about the three possible options. Residents of these communities can also provide feedback through the survey on the PRRD’s Have Your Say webpage.