Demolition of Vancouver Aquatic Centre will start on Oct. 1

Crews had already begun site preparation for demolition this summer with the 52-year-old pool in the West End being closed since late June.

The new aquatic centre will only have a 25-metre pool, something that user groups have said won’t fit their needs, while questioning the decision to push the process through against what they felt was the public’s wishes.

Hillcrest Community Centre now has the only 50-metre pool in Vancouver.

“It’s an inherently undemocratic decision they’re making,” Jon Girard, an avid swimmer and representative of Protecting our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society, said in a Postmedia story earlier this year.

“Most of the people who voted feel like it’s a betrayal.”

The city says the new “modern, accessible and inclusive community facility” will also have a dedicated diving tank with multiple board heights, a leisure pool, hot tub and sauna and an expanded fitness room.

Swimming Canada, the sport’s national body, raised alarms last year about closures of 50-metre pools across the country, including Vancouver’s, saying Canada’s “aquatic facility crisis” is jeopardizing the country’s ability to produce competitive swimmers.

The Protecting our Vancouver Aquatic Centre Society argued that Vancouver’s 2023-2026 capital plan, which was made public before citizens voted on the plebiscite, highlights a renewed and expanded Vancouver Aquatic Centre, with the project’s first phase “prioritizing the renewal of the 50-metre lap pool and diving pool.”

With files from Dan Fumano