A former Olympic swimmer campaigning to save the University of Victoria’s McKinnon Pool is asking university officials to reconsider their decision to close the facility.
Wayne Kelly said pool users were caught off guard last month when UVic suddenly announced online that the campus’s only swimming pool would be closed permanently by Sept. 15 because it needed $1.5 million worth of “upgrades.”
“We knew the UVic pool was getting old, but no one told us it needed repairs,” Kelly said.
“All user groups, students, staff, alumni, community members and swim teams were truly shocked.
“What’s really terrible for us is that we didn’t have an opportunity to say, ‘Let’s come together and work as a community on a plan to keep this pool open.'”
The 50-year-old pool “has reached the end of its natural life cycle and its maintenance is now too costly,” the July 2 statement said.
“The university must balance the significant costs of modernizing and maintaining the facility with the investments in infrastructure and programs that benefit the entire campus community,” Nicole Greengoe, UVic’s executive director of wellness, recreation and sport, was quoted as saying.
Kelly met with UVic officials who told him the $1.5 million figure was based on a repair list compiled by university staff.
He also started an online petition to save the swimming pool, which had over 3,500 signatures by Monday afternoon.
The petition caught the attention of Dave Obee, editor and publisher of the Victoria Times Colonist, who immediately offered to help raise the needed funds in the community.
“If $1.5 million is raised, will the pool stay open?”
“We’re good at this kind of thing,” he said in an email to CBC News.
“We already run two major fundraisers a year – a Christmas drive to help those in need and one every spring for literacy. In 2020, we helped raise $7 million to help people cope with the economic chaos caused by the pandemic.”
But before a fundraising campaign for the pool can be launched, “we also need an answer to a fundamental question: If these $1.5 million are raised, will the pool stay open?”
Obee said he sent emails to UVic President Kevin Hall and athletic department leaders during the first week of July, but has not yet received a response.
CBC has requested an interview with Hall, Greengoe or a university representative familiar with the decision to close the pool, but we were told no one was available.
Local and regional politicians are also addressing the issue, including MP Fin Donnelly, a former UVic University swimmer.
“As an alumnus … I hope that the University of Victoria will continue to have a swimming pool,” Donnelly told CBC News. “I swam at UVic in the 1980s and swimming was critical to my academic success.”
Kelly, also a former UVic swimmer who competed in the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, has now filed a freedom of information request to find out what repairs are needed and to learn more about how UVic officials came to their decision to close the pool.
In his opinion, it would be best to keep the current swimming pool open for a few more years while the university plans a replacement.
“I know we have the support of the community. Now we just need the support of the university,” Kelly said.
Obee, who is not a swimmer and has never used the McKinnon pool, said his interest was driven by an overarching concern that too many amenities are being lost in Greater Victoria.
“More and more people are arriving. At some point we have to start defending what we already have,” he said.
