Prince George Mayor and Council will once again discuss the short-term future the Aquatic Centre at Monday’s meeting.
This despite council already voting in favour of its two-year closure to perform 37-million dollars worth of upgrades earlier this month.
Councillor, Tim Bennett told MyPGNow.com Mayor Simon Yu is revisiting the issue once again by exercising his right under the community charter.
“This is based on the mayor having additional information to share so it’s my job as a councillor to come to the meeting with an open mind, hear the information that is going to be presented and then make a decision whether to support the recommendation or not.”
“We need to take in the feedback that we continue to receive from the community and to make the best decision I can at the table.”
Bennett was one of six Councillors that were in agreement to shut down the facility for two years stating it was the most prudent option that was presented to council.
“Ensuring that we best use tax payer dollars, rather than spending money over the next four years doing work and possibly re-doing work that had already been done the best use use of tax payer dollars to do all the work at once, recognizing the inconvenience it does cause closing the pool for an extended period of time.”
In April of 2024, the city approved the upgrades following an Alternative Approval Process.
Last month, the City of Prince George announced the Aquatic Centre would be closing for two years as of January 1st, 2026.
During the November 3rd meeting, an item of correspondence from Shane Milne, outlining the negative impacts a two-year closure would have for the swimming community in the City.
In his letter, Milne stated there could be an immediate degradation of training standards due to the Canfor Leisure Pool not being equipped for a competition level program, as well as the financial burden of not being able to host swim meets.
He urged City Council to commit to the following measures:
- Investigated phased renovation and shorter downtime
- Commitment to partnership for competitive readiness
- Strict and transparent reopening timeline
After highlighting some of the concerns in Milne’s letter, Councillor Trudy Klassen put forward a motion, asking administration to return a report on options to avoid a two-year shut down.
Klassen’s motion was defeated, with Councillors Ramsay, Polillo, Sampson, Scott, Bennett, Frizzell opposed.
Monday’s council meeting begins at 6pm from the council chambers at City Hall.
– with files from Darin Bain, MyPGNow.com staff
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