The South Delta Swim Society hopes the municipality will consider building a new facility to meet a growing demand.
Members of the society made a presentation to Delta’s parks, recreation and culture commission to discuss their proposal for an eight-lane, 50-metre aquatic facility in South Delta. Society representatives said local swim clubs face challenges accommodating swimmers, noting four out of five clubs have waitlists.
Hoping for a cost-sharing arrangement, the society indicated it would be seeking a meeting with MP Carla Qualtrough and that the provincial government and Delta school district have also been approached.
The commission made no promises but agreed to ask civic staff to provide a report to look at the aquatic needs in the community as well as an audit of scheduling and availability.
Saying a new purpose-built facility would free up capacity at existing facilities for programming and public swimming, the society’s Dave Colter told the Optimist the clubs, which are at around 550 members in total, already can’t accommodate the demand to get into competitive swimming.
“Swimming in South Delta, particularly on the more competitive side, the age group training and master swimming and especially with the younger kids, has tripled in size the last five to six years. While we’re currently able to swim in the Winskill Aquatic Centre and, starting in May, we can use the Ladner outdoor pool, the reality is we all have a waitlist,” he said.
“Particularly as it relates to the summer clubs and our youth programs, we are turning away kids every single year because we simply cannot get access to any more pool space to do training. So it’s always a balancing act of how many kids you can get into the pool at one time and still provide a quality program for them.”
Colter said the municipality has tried to be accommodating but there just isn’t enough pool space for everyone.
“We’re looking at the growth of our clubs, and then we’re looking down the road at the potential growth within the South Delta community through the Southlands, through Tsawwassen Springs, through TFN developments. We’re asking, ‘If we’re full now, what happens when all those come on stream and how do we continue to grow our clubs and the sport of swimming in South Delta and still meet everyone’s needs?’ We just don’t think that’s possible,” Colter said.
He said aquatic centres built in some other communities have cost tens of millions, but the Delta proposal would involve a partnership to build something potentially less expensive, geared mainly toward swim training and competitive swimming.
Colter added a new facility would be able to host events, a big advantage for groups such as the Ladner Stingrays that have to hold their annual swim meet in Richmond.
The proposed facility would also enable Delta to host larger provincial swim meets that bring in thousands of people over several days.
“It would be a tremendous advantage and give economic spinoffs,” Colter said. “Those meets are there to be had because there’s just not enough of those facilities in the Lower Mainland communities that can host those kinds of things.”
