The City of Moose Jaw has run into a major snag when it comes to replacing the outdoor pool at Crescent Park. 

During an update to city council on Monday night, Director of Parks and Recreation Derek Blais announced that they were unsuccessful in securing $6.5 million in grant funding through the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program’s Community, Culture & Recreation Infrastructure Stream.  

The loss of funding is a major blow to the project to replace the 56-year-old Phyllis Dewar Outdoor Pool as it will now be further delayed as the city looks at other sources of funding. 

“We were really hoping to get that one to help that whole project move forward. I mean, I've been swimming in the outdoor pool off and on all summer because it's been so hot, and although it’s beautiful to be out there, it is so old. I mean it's 56 years old and it shows its age. It's has not aged very well,” said Coun. Crystal Froese. 

The projected cost of the project is just under $9 million with the city’s proposed contribution of $2.5 million. 

The city received an email from the Ministry of Government Relations on July 5 stating that, while the outdoor pool replacement project was eligible for the grant, it was not among the list of projects recommended because of the total number of applications and the funding requests exceeded the available funding under the program. 

City administration will now go back to the drawing board to see what other options will be available. Blais warned that it could take some time. 

“Any type of infrastructure grant, especially of this magnitude, is difficult to come by, so we'll have to stay tuned to see what's coming through the federal government, provincial government, those types of options,” Blais said.  

“But I'm also going to have to look at some financing options, different things like that as we kind of work through where we find the $9 million.” 

However, after the meeting, Mayor Clive Tolley said he doesn’t believe borrowing money would be appropriate at this stage. 

“We've got a lot of priorities in this city. When an opportunity comes along to get federal-provincial funding or even matching funding, then that's an opportunity to get a project done,” Tolley explained. 

The new pool site that is being proposed would include a new reception desk, universal change rooms, concession, staff rooms, and pool mechanical and storage rooms. 

All of the mechanics for the new pool would be housed separately from the Natatorium, meaning the building can be decommissioned so the city can explore redevelopment of the historic building. 

Other plans for the new pool include an eight-lane 25-metre pool with accessible ramp entry, a leisure pool with a spray pad and a 40-metre flume water slide. 

When asked after the meeting whether Moose Jaw could be temporarily without an outdoor pool, city manager Jim Puffalt said “never say never.” 

“It's really expensive to get the outdoor pool in operation. It takes a ton of work. That's why we tried to move the pool project up as quickly as we could,” Puffalt said.  

“Fortunately, we are shovel-ready now and that's a lot of the steps to be prepared for the grant opportunities when they come and so we're there now and I don't believe that we were before.” 

City administration is expected to return during the 2023 budget deliberations with further funding options for the new pool. 

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