Indoor/Outdoor Pools

Waste heat and bubbles

Toronto is a great place to swim, we have a beautiful lake and a whopping 230 supervised swimming facilities run by the city, in addition to hotels, condo’s and other private pools.

The breakdown of public swim facilities is 65 indoor, 57 outdoor and 104 wading pools. These provide a great place for kids to play, learn and improve skills that they will likely use for the rest of their life. For adults and seniors, pools provide recreation and exercise as well as community.

For kids, signing up for swimming lessons with the city can be an exercise in futility as classes fill up quickly. For adults and seniors there might not be good times when the pool is open for community use, or it may be full.

We have a great resource, but more than half when you include the wading pools are shut for 70% of the year. It would be good to figure out ways to better utilize our existing capital resources by increasing their utilization to year round.

This could be done in three ways based on examples from other cold weather cities.

1. Collect and use waste heat from industrial or other city infrastructure to heat outdoor pools (potentially including sewage, district heating, enwave, or even the Portland energy centre)

2. Use dedicated low-cost renewable electricity (solar, wind, batteries) or ground-sourced heat pumps to heat outdoor pools

3. Cover outdoor pools with bubbles during the winter

This could be done as part of an ongoing capital upgrade program where pools are modernized along with change rooms, facilities that would take into account these new features (ie different temperature hot tubs, cold plunges, indoor/outdoor transitions, fun lighting, etc.)

Toronto should direct staff to:

1. Create a report itemizing all outdoor pools and splash pads to determine

   1. the feasibility and cost of covering them with a bubble or other temporary structure

      and/or

   2. the feasibility and cost of heating the pool (either year round, or for shoulder seasons)

   3. opportunities to use waste heat from nearby facilities, or other methods that might be off the beaten path

2. Create an additional report on new facilities or improvements to existing facilities that could make them more appealing for year round usage, or would improve the experience, for example:

   1. Creating new or heating/winterizing existing change rooms, bathrooms and facilities

   2. New or additional pool facilities (hot tubs, cold tubs, etc.)

   3. Environmental improvements (lighting, music, signage)

3. Create a capital/rollout plan that takes into account

   1. cost of upgrades

   2. providing improved facilities in locations where they are most needed

   3. size and expected utilization of the improved facilities

   4. ability to allow the city to run more programming (ie. lessons)

   5. lifespan of existing assets

4. An operational plan and budget for year round usage of new facilities as they come online