THUNDER BAY – The city will be spending $1 million to relocate the hot tubs and saunas at the Canada Games Complex, addressing a situation that has had near-fatal consequences.
The whirlpools and saunas at the facility are currently located essentially within the men’s and women’s locker rooms and are unsupervised by lifeguards, which city general manager of community services Kelly Robertson said has led to some close calls.
“In the recent past there have been at least three incidents where users of the hot tubs have gone unconscious in the water and just so happened to be recovered by staff as they were doing a walk through or were called upon for assistance,” Robertson said.
Thunder Bay city council on Monday night voted to go ahead with the renovations to the 36-year-old facility, which includes relocating the saunas and whirlpools to the pool deck and expanding the women’s members’ locker room.
Coun. Joe Virdiramo, the lone opposing vote, questioned whether the improvements would be an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars.
“It’s nice that we might want to do this but I thought that the $1 million could be better spent on some roads instead of doing this,” Virdiramo said.
Moving the saunas and whirlpools away from the locker rooms and out onto the pool deck improve accessibility for caregivers or support workers who will be able to assist children or clients to use the amenities, Robertson said.
“The other key issue with the current setup is they are not accessible. To meet our (Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act) requirements they need to be addressed,” Robertson said.
“It made sense that while we were addressing the safety and accessibility issues to also do it with the member’s only locker rooms that are kind of attached to the rooms where these facilities are to minimize the inconvenience to our clients and patrons.”
Asset management director Gerry Broere said the project was originally budgeted at $450,000 in last year’s budget but got pushed to this year when the estimates came back at more than $700,000.
The city is eying funding from the yet-to-be announced federal New Canada Build Infrastructure Program but in the meantime planned upgrades at the Oliver Road Community Centre and West Thunder Community Centres will be pushed to next year’s budget process.
“It is a bumping order,” Broere said. “What would happen is we would just take longer to continue through our renewal. It’s just a matter of priority and when they fall in place and the amount of funding that is available.”
The $1-million contract was awarded to Man-Shield Construction (NWO).
