Victoria requests designs for new $69.4M Crystal Pool

Victoria has issued a request for proposals for an architect to design the new Crystal Pool, even though sources of funding for the $69.4-million project remain unclear.

“The best way to get funding is to actually have a project to fund, whether we need to go to the public through [a] referendum or to the federal and provincial governments,” said Mayor Lisa Helps.

“Both [levels of government] are looking for projects that they could fund and then see a start right away.”

The city has $10 million in reserves to put toward the project, but the balance, minus outside grants, would have to be borrowed, triggering a referendum.

Helps added that the federal government “has announced all this infrastructure funding but [has] very little to show for it.”

Thomas Soulliere, director of parks, recreation and facilities, agreed it’s helpful to have a project that is “shovel-ready” when funding programs are announced.

“If we don’t get all the funding required through grant programs, then we’ll be using all of this material that we’re developing as part of the referendum process to make sure that residents and citizens understand what, essentially, they would be authorizing the city to build,” Soulliere said.

The request for proposals says the new facility will contain a 50-metre pool and a leisure/therapy pool and “will be accessible for patrons of all ages and abilities.”

The architect would be responsible for designing an environmentally friendly facility with a capacity to serve 35 per cent more patrons than use the existing pool, working with Turnbull Construction Project Managers, which has been selected as the city’s representative on the project.

The facility would use green technologies that make the building more energyefficient and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.

Construction is scheduled to start in the fall of 2018, with completion in 2021.

Soulliere said 35 per cent more capacity doesn’t mean a building footprint that is 35 per cent larger.

“Essentially, what it means is having higher-quality spaces that can accommodate more uses and higher volumes of users throughout the operating hours,” he said.

The initial plan was to hold the projectfunding referendum last month. That changed in June, when senior staff suggested the amount to be borrowed could be significantly reduced or even eliminated if the city taps into senior government grant programs.

Helps believes enough senior-government funding could be found to eliminate the need for borrowing.

“This is a perfect project for the province to fund and if the province says yes, the federal government will say yes because they take their direction from the province,” said Helps, who called the pool facility a “model project.”

“It’s a regional facility. It’s going to be all ages and abilities. It will increase the health and wellness of people across the region. It will increase sustainability and reduce greenhouse-gas emissions.”

Helps said the federal government is negotiating bilateral funding agreements with provinces, with an eye tohaving those deals in place before Christmas.

Councillors decided in February to replace the 45-year-old Crystal Pool, rejecting the idea of retrofitting or expanding the existing facility at an estimated cost of $40.9 million to $57.1 million.