Advance voting opens in Victoria’s Crystal Pool referendum

The debate surrounding Victoria’s contentious Crystal Pool replacement project is finally being put to voters – who’re being asked two questions in a referendum that could make for the city’s largest infrastructure project yet.

The polls for advance voting open Jan. 29 and general voting runs until Feb. 8.

“If it’s more kid-friendly, then that’s a ‘yes’ in my books,” says Victoria voter Miriam Sonstenes.

“A project of that size, it’s too big for the City of Victoria,” says another Victoria resident and voter, Mark Appleton.

The public is being asked whether it thinks the city should borrow up to $168.9 million over a term that can’t exceed 20 years to help pay to replace Victoria’s only public pool and recreation centre. It’s a binding vote.

“There’s no doubt that the lion’s share of this, at least at the moment, appears to be coming from the city itself. And so we do have some reserves to contribute to that,” says Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto.

A secondary question, which is non-binding, explores whether people prefer a facility that’s built where the building is now or to the south of it. Both are in Central Park.

“It’s about time that we got this done, because the longer that we wait the more expensive that it gets and the higher the likelihood that this pool is going to break down,” says Karmen McNamara, the campaign spokesperson for Let’s Get Crystal Clear.

The city has long put taxpayers and users of Crystal Pool on notice that many of the facility’s systems are at or beyond their useful life.

“We’re doing everything we can within our existing resources to keep the facility operational as long as we can. That being said, on any given day we could have a major failure of the system that’s going to require a closure of the facility until we make those repairs to the building,” says Victoria parks, recreation and facilities director Derrick Newman.

He says the city is spending roughly $250,000 annually to keep gym-goers inside on the equipment and swimmers in the pool. Newman says one of the biggest challenges with the mechanical system is the pool’s complex filtration system. It’s needed to keep the pool clean and up to health standards.

“They’re at a point now where they continue to fail and we’re having to retrofit modern parts onto these old systems. It’s also getting harder for us to locate replacement parts,” says Newman.

According to the city, the replacement project is forecast to cost up to $215 million, which is three times higher than when the replacement was proposed by council in 2017.

“I’m concerned about the cost overruns of a project that size,” says Appleton.

A campaign asking people to vote ‘no’ in the referendum shares the worry.

“We’re living in uncertain times. We’re looking at a trade war with the States,” says Better Pools, Better Futures spokesperson, Sean Kahil. “No other municipality, no other level of government is committed to anything on this.”

Victoria’s mayor says the city is trying to recruit funding from other levels of government – and that council is aware of affordability concerns around rising property taxes, which the borrowing would add to.

“If the referendum succeeds, then we have to look really hard at our existing budgets for the next five to seven years to see how we can trim other areas in order to accommodate this,” says Alto.

The city has outlined a plan that would phase in tax increases over four to five years. Based on the projections, the average residential property assessed at $1,046,000 would pay an extra $232 to $240 per year.

The new facility would have more fitness space, be built to accessibility standards – and while the pool would be the same size, a key feature would bring a new benefit.

“The major improvement to the 50-metre pool is what’s called the floating bulkhead. And that innovation would allow greater programming within the large pool tank,” says Newman.

A proponent voting yes says the need for it is great.

“Why not just go to another pool? Well because every pool in the CRD is overcapacity. So it is not possible to take the users from Crystal Pool and transplant them to other facilities around the region,” says McNamara.

The City of Victoria says it’s seen a 22 per cent increase in participation rates at the facility, which is about 1,250 daily visits. The goal with the replacement plan is to increase capacity by 25 per cent.

CTV News checked with every public pool in the Capital Regional District – and heard replies indicating demand is high, especially with learn-to-swim programs.

“If you are involved in any way in amateur sport in this province, you realize that facilities are a big problem,” says Oak Bay resident Geoff Wong.

The city has made it clear, if voters opt against borrowing money to build the new facility, staff would return to council for direction on next steps.

“Everyone knows that we need to replace this pool. What we need to do is come up with a new plan,” says Kahil. “What we need is a municipally sized pool, not a regional pool,” he adds.

Let’s Get Crystal Clear disagrees and points out the replacement pitch isn’t being designed for competitive sport, similar to Saanich’s Commonwealth Pool.

“Voting ‘no’ won’t make this cheaper, voting ‘no’ won’t make this go away. Voting ‘no’ won’t make some magical plans appear that will solve this problem,” says McNamara.

Advance voting runs from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Jan. 29, Feb. 3 and Feb. 5 at the Crystal Garden. The locations for general voting on Feb. 8 can be found here.