The District of Port Hardy’s indoor swimming pool has finally been filled with water.
Mayor Pat Corbett-Labatt said in an interview with the Gazette that the district is in the middle of commissioning the pool, which means they are testing all the equipment involved to make sure everything is “working the way it should be so that when we do get to open it, it won’t be shut down very quickly.”
As for whether there’s a confirmed soft opening date for the pool, Corbett-Labatt stated they’re still not there yet.
“I had hoped it would’ve been open for my birthday but it wasn’t,” she laughed, noting they are also still looking for more staff so they will be able to offer as many programs as possible.
As for whether the pool will stay open during the summertime, the mayor said the district is hoping so.
“As long as we have staff, we’re going to keep it open as much as we can.”
The pool has unfortunately been closed for much-needed repairs ever since June of 2021.
Originally the district had planned to entirely replace the 40+ year old pool with a state of the art multiplex. Refurbishing the pool would have cost around $8.5 million to fully revitalize the entire aquatic centre.
However, after being turned down for funding by the federal and provincial governments, council had to make the decision to move forward with a “Pool Revitalization Project” that would simply upgrade the existing pool.