Skip to content

New council to meet on pool project for first time this week

The new Flin Flon city council plans to meet with the company contracted to plan and build a replacement to the Flin Flon Aqua Centre in hopes of moving the project ahead.
aquacentre
The now-demolished Flin Flon Aqua Centre, seen here in a file image.

The new Flin Flon city council plans to meet with the company contracted to plan and build a replacement to the Flin Flon Aqua Centre in hopes of moving the project ahead.

When asked about the replacement to the Aqua Centre and the status of the project, Mayor George Fontaine said there had not been any movement on the pool since the election earlier this year, but that there is still a desire from the group to see the project through to completion.

“Nothing recent. There’s lots of hope and no one’s given up,” said the mayor.

Councillor Alison Dallas-Funk said that the new council would be meeting soon with Winnipeg-based Ernst Hansch Construction, the company awarded the project in 2020, to get up to speed with the current plans.

“We've requested a meeting with contractors, to have an overview and to see how the previous council had things. We don’t know,” she said.

The former Flin Flon Aqua Centre was closed to the public in January 2020 after staff noticed a pronounced bow in the roof over the pool area of the building. The complex was closed, first temporarily and then permanently later in 2020. The roof partially collapsed in November - the building was torn down in December.

Since then, the City has aimed to build a replacement for the pool, first planning to build a new complex on the former site of the Willowvale Curling Club, then moving plans back to the former pool site. According to latest plans for the project, released to the public at a meeting in June, the pool project’s estimated cost is now around $11 million, more than the original cost estimate in the $9 million range - federal and provincial grants will cover most of the costs.

Construction on the new pool was originally slated to begin last summer, but changes in the site and in materials costs were cited by the previous city council as reasons for the increase in price and for the delays.

Each of the six elected city councillors shared support for the pool project, in some form, in the run-up to last fall’s election in The Reminder.

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks