To the editor:
The city's outdoor pools are important to many children in our city and have been for a very long time.
Dease Pool opened in 1912, 10 years prior to the city's first national hockey championship and may be the oldest outdoor pool in Canada and or the United States. Heath Pool opened in 1953.
Tens of thousands of children have learned to swim here over the last 105 years. Learning to swim can and does save lives. The pool was first opened to stop children swimming in the Kam River as there had been several drownings. Many of the children that swim here can't afford to go to the Canada Games Complex or other indoor pools.
This activity in the summer time keeps these children busy, out of trouble and helps them interact with other children from a wide variety of backgrounds.
Although very young children enjoy running under the garden hose or a splash pad they long for a real swimming pool to swim and splash around in as they become a little older and young teenagers.
It's time to spend some money upgrading our outdoor pools remembering the city spends over $1.5 million each year keeping the Canada Games Complex operational. These outdoor pools are treasures and need to be put on Thunder Bay's Heritage Registry.
On another matter the city plans to raise city taxes approximately three per cent this year. Our taxes are beginning to feel like mortgage payments and the big question is why? Why did Thunder Bay have the highest taxes in almost every category in Chatham Kent's BMA report?
What is Thunder Bay doing wrong and what are these other cities doing right?
Ray Smith,
Thunder Bay
