I wasn't living here then, but when the Shaw Center was to be built in Saskatoon, apparently a public town hall type meeting was held to announce it and at the very end the city planners of the time said something like "Oh by the way, we're mothballing the Harry Bailey Aquatic Center, so this replaces it".

To their utter astonishment, people loudly protested and they were forced to back down and keep Harry Bailey. Gee, imagine that - people actually wanted a centrally located pool designed for actual swimming, so that they didn't have to drive out to the far west edge of town if they lived on the east side. The only other indoor pools in or close to the east side are tiny cramped "leisure" pools. (Lawson is bearable, Lakewood is thoroughly awful for laps.)

So, Harry Bailey was in service until early 2023 and is now undergoing a massive renovation. Looking forward to swimming there again next year. Last time I drove by they were installing photovoltaic panels on the steep roof.

Municipalities ... strapped for cash, and neglecting upkeep on aging pools, now face hefty renovation or rebuild costs — or closure.

If you are pissed off about this, let your municipality (and the region that your municipality is in) know that they need to STOP widening roads, and degrow car-centric infrastructure. And that all public parking should be paid parking.

You should also tell them that housing the homeless actually saves money.

It's kind of infuriating that municipalities keep investing in money pits that will never bring a positive return to taxpayers or society, yet never have enough money for things like pools.

This is the result of kicking the can down the road continually rather than spending tax money on maintaining and building the infrastructure needed by the populace. Everything ends up in a failure state but at least you paid $50 less in tax each year!

It's so funny, we are finding a not cheap pool in our city right now and the conservative portion of our city is up in arms. These people just want to take away, never improve.

NIMBY people delayed an ~~upgrade~~ rebuild here by a decade and the budgeted cost nearly tripled by the time it got approved.

I wonder how much of the facilities boom came from the economic growth of the 50s, and 60s. Every city I've lived in has a few facilities named "Centennial" that were built in 1967. They're still in use.

Meanwhile, the 25 year old cut-off used in the article kinda corresponds to the austerity of the 1990s. The facilities I've seen built since then (in Ottawa, at least) seem to be municipally required largesse from developers.

Maybe the money we pay the government in the form of taxes could go to things like I frastructure improvement and repair instead of insane salaries for public servants? Just a thought? Isn't a government supposed to plan for these things? I do at my job managing a facility with lots of infrastructure...