A little over a year ago, a University of Victoria decision sent shockwaves across the South Island swimming community.
On July 2, 2024, the university announced it would close McKinnon Pool after 50 years of operation, citing aging infrastructure and a lack of funding for the estimated $1.5 million in maintenance costs.
Blindsided by the news, former Olympian and UVic alumnus Wayne Kelly took it upon himself to fight for the pool’s survival. After launching a Facebook group that now connects more than 600 members, he has been in contact with UVic staff ever since to help prevent hundreds of athletes from becoming homeless.
Following mounting community pressure after the announcement, Kelly secured a meeting with UVic president Kevin Hall to discuss the situation.
After their conversation, Kelly said he felt hopeful after Hall “agreed that the closure was rushed” and committed to completing a proper engineering report once the pool was drained on Sept. 15.
However, as months passed, no updates were released, and the pool sat empty behind painted windows, hidden from the public's view.
Frustrated by the lack of progress, Kelly and his group filed Freedom of Information (FOI) requests in November 2024. A month later, more than 600 pages of information came back with a “shocking revelation” which disclosed that a first engineering report was conducted less than a year before the closure was declared.
Conducted in October 2023, the assessment estimated the total cost of pool repairs at $166,800 – a stark contrast to the $1.5 million figure, said Kelly.
“It looks, to us, that UVic dreamt up $1.5 million,” he said. “And when we questioned them on it, they were… pretty silent.”
The 2023 document stated that the “pool structure appears to generally be performing as intended with no visible signs of distress or excessive deflection.”
At the start of the new year, with the pool still closed and the latest report yet to be released, Kelly and 250 community members gathered outside the McKinnon building one February morning to demand its publication.
A few days later, on Feb. 12, the report was released, with the cost of repairs now ballooning to $5.1 million.
Appalled, Kelly skimmed through the document.
“When we read over the report, they have changed the scope of it,” he said. “Now, it’s not just to repair the pool; they want the whole McKinnon building revamped and refurbished.
“They went from a small scope (and now) the costs are just insurmountable.
In a written statement, a UVic spokesperson said the university remains open to upgrading the McKinnon facility and reopening the pool if community or commercial partners step forward with funding for upgrades and operating costs.
“UVic has met with municipal and community leaders; to date, no funding agreement has been secured to repair and reopen the pool,” reads the statement.
It adds that the university recognizes that recreational spaces like pools are in high demand in the region and acknowledges that closing a facility is never an easy decision.
“Pools… are expensive to operate and maintain, and the university cannot, in the current fiscal climate, prioritize these facilities over providing academic and research programming, housing and other supports,” UVic added, citing that usage rates among students, staff and faculty “were very low.”
However, Kelly disputes this rationale.
Since July 2, the former Olympian, along with community groups and private organizations, has expressed interest in fundraising, but Kelly says UVic has yet to engage with him or any other group offering support.
Additionally, Kelly contends that the pool's yearly operating cost only represents a small fraction of the university’s revenues of $535 million.
In discussion between UVic staff and Kevin Hall, obtained through the FOI request, it was mentioned that it costs in the neighbourhood of $200,000 annually to operate the pool.
Kelly contends that this is a small price to pay for a facility that benefits hundreds of users.
“This pool is an amenity to the community,” he said. “You've got students, you've got staff, you've got faculty, you've got clubs that depend on it, and then all of a sudden you just decide to close it?”
The former Olympian added the news comes at a critical time. With Victoria's Crystal Pool set to close for five years and the downtown YMCA/YWCA pool shutting down, he warns that it will exert additional pressure on the region’s swimming community, which is already at full capacity.
Pacific Coast Swimming general manager and coach Mark Lancaster supports Kelly’s claim.
Spearheading an organization that supports 1,200 athletes, from toddlers to adults, including UVic student-athletes and Sunday swimmers, Lancaster said the region’s pool circuit is filled to the brim.
“We have about another 300 kids that are on a wait list that can’t learn to swim because there's not enough pools or enough pool lanes for us to rent,” he said. “It's just impossible to find enough space for the amount of kids that need to learn to swim.
“We're really in a hurting situation.”
While McKinnon Pool may not have been busy during the day, as UVic argued, it was used frequently before and after school hours, from its early morning opening until closing time, said Lancaster and Kelly.
Mostly known as the home of the Vikes varsity swimmers, the facility also served as a hub for various other groups, including swimming clubs, a kayaking club, underwater hockey teams, and synchronized swimmers. It even welcomed engineering students testing their submersibles.
When reflecting on the situation, Kelly admitted feeling frustrated while questioning the university’s integrity over the past year.
“The more I dig, the (more) I feel they're being disingenuous,” he said. “It shows a lack of sensitivity to the user groups, students, staff, faculty, and the community… that have come to rely on the pool.”
Regardless of the hurdles ahead, Kelly remains resolute to fight to save this "amenity to the community.”
“We're going to ramp up our efforts again because we know that the pool can be open,” Kelly said.
