Waterpark Musings

I am afraid that I might lose my local blogging licence if I don't post about the waterpark issue, so here it goes.

I'm not against a waterpark. As part of the basket of recreational services offered by a city they can be a good thing. Some communities in Manitoba such as Dauphin and Portage have done a great job using them as anchors for recreational complexes.

What Winnipeg has on the table, however, isn't a civic waterpark. It is a private hotel waterpark that will somehow ensure that poor families get $7m worth of visits. As pointed out by Policy Frog on last week's Winnipeg Internet Pundits, how this value gets distributed to needy Winnipeg families is still a bit of a mystery. Through social service agencies ? A walk-up system ? (If you remember back to 2007 - 08 when the money was first offered, this project was as much about providing such a facility for citizens as it was about being a major tourist attraction.)

Without a firm plan in place, I wonder how well the the public requirements and a private hotel will mesh. After all, we're in a city where a national corporation unashamedly admitted to pulling their staff from a downtown hotel because "certain people" were milling around outside and sometimes got into the building. Sadly, many locals use "these people' as a scapegoat for the ills of the downtown.

I wonder if the challenge of a hotel crawling with some of the city's neediest families and their parents will have an impact on how passes get distributed ?

To give credit where credit is due, the mayor and city have done a good job when it comes to improving aging recreational facilities. The Cindy Klassen Recreation Centre is a jewel, Bronx Park was completely rebuilt and Central Park's splash pad makes me wish I was a kid again.

It's unfortunate that this $7m will not continue this tradition.

There are a number of existing pools in the city, many built in the late 70s - early 80s and in need of repair, that supply most of what a large waterpark would need - a site, parking, seating, tank, change areas etc.

Let me bring up one facility that goes much further back than that: the Sherbrook Pool. It sits underutilized in the heart of one of Canada's poorest neighbourhoods, (see the Google Streetview.). As a tank-only Olympic sized swimming pool (with a very small gym) it has ended up on the chopping block a couple of times only to barely get a reprieve.

On weekends there are free and toonie swims and the place is packed, especially in summer. Because operating costs are high, there is little to offer besides a tank and the fact that maintenance has been neglected for decades, means that its days will always be numbered as an inner-city recreation facility as newer aquatic facilities have incorporated gyms, play areas and waterslides into their renovations.

Would $7m be able to recreate this site (or a couple of existing pools ?) I think it would. (I first wrote about this in 2008 when council first awarded the $7m to CanadInns Polo Park.)

This project has, of course, morphed from it's original intention into being a legacy project for the mayor.

Many of Katz' promises have had a very short shelf life. Remember free transit for seniors ? Wi-fi-ing the downtown ? Cutting the business tax for downtown businesses ? All came and went in a budget cycle or two, never to be revisited again. Relatively speaking, the waterpark idea's five year run is rather remarkable.

I attended the downtown issues debate during the last election when Katz listed off the great projects that were bringing downtown back to life: the MTS Centre, the Manitoba Hydro Tower and CanWest (now Shaw) Park. It was not lost on the crowd that none of these projects were "his". I remember feeling at the time that the former promoter-turned-mayor would likely be seeking a shiny bauble of his own. It appears that the waterpark is his choice.

It is unfortunate for everyone that the mayor's legacy dream and his two stated goals, a great attraction for the downtown area and additional water-based recreational amenities for youth, have ended up crystallizing into something as mundane as a chain hotel with a waterpark at The Forks.