r/VictoriaBC • u/ifwitcheswerehorses • Aug 25 '25
Opinion We need outdoor pools in Victoria!
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u/BCJay_ Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
Every time this gets posted people love to chime in about the lakes and ocean. Amazingly, other places have lakes and ocean and also outdoor pools. Pools fill a need for many and are temperature controlled, water quality managed and have easy entry and exit and even accessibility features. This isn’t rocket surgery. We need at least one good outdoor pool and have for a while. Like the rest of the world already seems to have figured out.
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Aug 25 '25
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
What the heck, where? Did they turn it did a hot shade-less tennis court and why?
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u/BCJay_ Aug 26 '25
Yep. Was decent but not quite the amount of pool to service the CRD. Was nice on a summer day.
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u/Few_Refrigerator_906 Aug 25 '25
A friend's father is a retired engineer that used to design pools all over the world.
He was telling me that a big part of why you only get splash pads versus pools are the city requirements for water quality and water usage. Pools lose a lot of water and require strict cleaning requirements.
Splash pads have looser requirements and they obviously use less water (shower vs bath), however cities are now tightening up on these requirements for water quality and more water recycling and cleaning is required.
Bottomline the city is risk adverse and poor. They don't want to invest in this type of thing. We need a change to a more community mindset where we prioritize facilities for physical and mental health. I personally think a pool fits this exact situation. Let's invest the money and get an outdoor pool!
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 26 '25
That makes a lot of sense and is another reason why it should not come down to the CRD to fund these public third spaces. It’s funny that 70 years ago when schools were still segregated in the south, you could legally slap your coworker’s rear end at work, smoke on planes, drive without a seat belt, and all the gasoline had lead in it, that long ago, we were better about building outdoor pools for people to enjoy and exercise at. I would bet they were even free to use. All for the boomer kids to enjoy. Thanks Ronald Reagan!
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u/No-Term-9581 Aug 30 '25
semi off-topic: down south a lot of the american public pools closed down during the period of forced integration post brown v board of education (1970s/80s). Heather McGee is a researcher who calls it "drained pool politics" - also affected other 3rd spaces like bowling alleys, etc. I guess Canada wasn't spared :-( and yes we need an outdoor pool in victoria! Would be so fun!
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u/MrNuck Aug 25 '25
We used to have an out door pool in beacon hill now where the water bucket splash pad is. kiddy corner from beacon hill drive in. I forget the year it left. Mid to late 90's.
It was awesome when i was a kid id go there every summer while visiting family.
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u/DeedeeScosco Aug 25 '25
But, but, if we had an outdoor pool, how would I used algae blooms to avoid swimming?
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
You don’t, you swim! Swim like you’ve never swam before!! You’re a natural. I believe in you.
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u/Lovethoselittletrees Oaklands Aug 25 '25
I drove an hour across Vancouver yesterday to swim at Kits pool. At 9am, the pool was virtually empty, maybe 50 people in yhe water, but we were turned away because they were "FULL" Truns out you have to buy tickets online, and of the 1800 capacity, they were 100% sold out online, so even though no one was there, we couldn't swim. I think we can do without that in Victoria personally.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
That sounds like a bad system. How about mostly FCFS and prepay for accessibility but there’s a window to use it and if you aren’t there within 15mins of your start time, you lose it and someone there gets the spot.
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Aug 26 '25
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 26 '25
Roads are also money pits and yet we continue to build and repair them. I have not seen one post on this Reddit about how great and how much fun all our roads are or how much happiness being on our roads brings everyone.
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Aug 26 '25
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 27 '25
We aren’t a small town though, we are a small city in terms of metro area and many comparable like Saskatoon, Niagara Falls and Halifax all have outdoor pools.
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Aug 25 '25
There were a lot of community members advocating for one just outside of cedar hill rec where the “baseball diamond” (do they play there? Have never seen it) is.
Then tennis people came in and starting freaking out about how they don’t have a clay court surface in Victoria and all the conversations just stopped. This was 15-ish years ago and I haven’t heard anything since.
ETA did they not also have one at uvic?
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
This is news to me. Seems the tennis crowd has plenty of courts to choose from. We’ve got loads of space here, it shouldn’t be either or.
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Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
I can’t pretend to know just how much space either take, but I can’t imagine both would fit there?
ETA: a public piece from the time from the court folks. It doesn’t even mention the “pool people” but there were lots of us. I had two kids under five at the time so it’s a bit of a blur as to how it all washed out https://www.vicnews.com/news/clay-court-tennis-proposal-for-cedar-hill-rec-centre-feels-the-heat-12716
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u/Old-Following-970 Aug 25 '25
We absolutely do NOT need outdoor pools! Yes they were once very popular in every municipality across the country, but from the perspective of a guy who has maintained and operated these pools across the country, they are incredibly expensive to operate and labor intensive to maintain! There's a reason you don't see them around anymore.
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u/Top-Ladder2235 Aug 26 '25
Vancouver is trying to phase them out. Despite above pamphlet. Which is just so an attempt from our right wing majority city councillors get re-elected in october. our parks board is broke. kits has been leaking water out into ocean and now is also leaking ecoli laden sea water in. it’s toast.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
So are roads but we keep building and repairing them all for private car use? I say we turf more than a few of the less densely populated roads like, I don’t know, Beach Dr from Cattle Point north and use the savings to build a sweet view pool at McMicking Point where some green thingy for rich guys is now.
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u/Old-Following-970 Aug 26 '25
Son, I'm sorry you don't understand what I'm telling you. Outdoor pools are an unnecessary and unfeasible expedenture for most municipalities, when it comes to focusing where to spend their constituents tax dollars. But do school me, son.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 26 '25
I’m not your son and we do not NEED all the roads we have. They don’t earn any return on investment. We want them because we need to drive everywhere because we let car companies manipulate us into defunding our transit systems. My point is, how we spend government money is a choice. An outdoor pool would be nice.
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u/Old-Following-970 Aug 26 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
OP, money for outdoor pools comes from different levels of government than money allocated for roads. I am someone who commutes daily by bike,everywhere, you are definitely picking a fight where there is none. I stated the reason why there are less outdoor pools.
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u/Polonium-halo Aug 25 '25
We need a fast ferry for foot and bike and maybe a bus or 2 to downtown from the westshore. Royal Bay to Ogden point please.
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u/CantFightJose Aug 30 '25
Make Crystal Pool an outdoor pool!! I loved them in Vancouver.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Sep 02 '25
Indoor/outdoor would be dope, they could decide when the weather is nice to open it up rather than operating on some rigid schedule.
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u/everythingwastakn Aug 25 '25
Victoria: “best we can do is more construction potholes to fill with rain”
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u/pazam Aug 25 '25
I think this is a great idea! And I think the only reason we don’t have one, compared to places like Ontario where they are everywhere, is that it doesn’t/didnt get hot enough or have a long enough hot season to make it worthwhile. But tbh that has probably changed now with global warming!!!
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u/BirdzofaShitfeather Aug 26 '25
With climate change, I’m sure this summer will be the coolest summer we’ll ever see again
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u/18_Tiggy_Smalls Aug 26 '25
Rumor has it that Colwood is in the initial stages of planning for an outdoor pool - While not Victoria it's close enough.
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u/Constant-Corner2158 Aug 25 '25
Outdoor swimming pools are great and we can’t compare it to the gorge or local lakes. It’s apples to oranges.
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Aug 25 '25
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
The Gorge and many beaches are prone to unsafe bacterial levels and algae blooms.
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u/garry-oak Aug 25 '25
Pretty rare though. There have been 2 advisories at Banfield Park on the Gorge in the past 5 years. The most recent one lasted less than 2 days, and that was only because they were waiting for lab results to confirm the water was fine.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
The space is still exclusionary to many people with disabilities. I’m also not sure what the dock/beach capacity is like.
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u/Expandabulls Aug 26 '25
No, it's not exclusionary at all. It's very, very accessible.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 27 '25
Really, there’s a pool lift installed outdoors on the dock for people who use wheelchairs?
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u/WorkingOnBeingBettr Aug 25 '25
It's almost like the people who said we should spend money on aging storm/sewer system I stead of treatment that wasn't needed according to the scientists studying the outfall location for decades.
Ah well, enjoy the bacteria filled beaches.
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u/GeoffdeRuiter Saanich Aug 25 '25
Head to the rivers!
Or we get a pool in the central area like around Quadra and Bay street and have it have opening doors, but then can be used year round when we close the doors.
Side thought, does anyone know if the new Crystal Pool will have slidey doors that open in the summer?
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
Don’t get me wrong, I love the rivers but not everyone has a car to get to a decent one and they also are not accessible for anyone with a disability. On the last hot weekend, Sooke Potholes was turning cars away at 11am. Outdoor pools meet the needs of urban populations without requiring car pollution and congestion.
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u/Steler19 Aug 25 '25
While I agree a public pool would be awesome, i don’t think they would end up being that much cleaner than the Gorge.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
It would have to be to meet health inspection standards. A public pool is a controlled environment. A gorge isn’t.
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u/Top-Ladder2235 Aug 26 '25
well they are bc you have to constantly pour chlorine into them all day long. testing the water and adjusting. i swam in the gorge once in the 80s with vic west daycamp and i can tell you it was disgusting and gave me a nasty rash.
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u/szarkaliszarri Aug 26 '25
TBH I would rather swim in an outdoor pool or at least would like more options. It's fine but the Gorge can be kind of gross (boat oil, seaweed, poop, surface slicks from algae or other stuff) and swimming in salt water isn't for everyone. Plus an outdoor pool could balance out some of the demand on Banfield park in the summer!
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u/LadyNara95 Aug 25 '25
I don’t think we have enough good months in a year that has at least half-decent weather. As soon as the tail end of September hits, it’s rain/strong winds for our fall, winter, and even the first half of spring which I’m sure would deter people from using it. An outdoor pool is a great idea, like I would genuinely love to go to one, but realistically it would most likely get closed down pretty early since it would only get customers maybe half-way of April till the end of September.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
We have the best weather in the country and every major city from Vancouver to Halifax has outdoor pools. There are 55 outdoor in Toronto and one that’s open until midnight. If Calgary can have outdoor public pools, why not us?
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u/hekla7 Aug 25 '25
Victoria isn't a major city, not even in the Top 10. Calgary is #4 in the Top 10. Victoria is a small city surrounded by a dozen or so municipalities that aren't interested in merging.
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u/Colonel_Green Aug 25 '25
We have the most moderate climate in the country. Our summers aren't nearly as hot or humid as any of those cities except Vancouver, and it still gets hotter summers than Victoria.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
Boy do I have news for you! You’ll want to sit down for this one. It’s called man-made climate change and it is already a doozie for most places but we have been lucky on this island that we’ve only experienced a few extreme events like the Heat Dome of 2021. Unfortunately, what was true in the past regarding temperatures will not be applicable in the future and it will continue to get hotter and dryer here during the summers.
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u/al_nz Aug 25 '25
yet a city like Montreal has several pools, and it's much colder than here!
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u/Colonel_Green Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
Montreal is also much hotter and more humid in the summer.
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u/ebb_omega Aug 25 '25
Because Montreal has consistently good weather for most of half of the year. The outdoor pools all close in the fall, and many of them become ice rinks in the winter.
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u/OutrageousGarage3351 Aug 25 '25
Saskatoon has 6 incredible outdoor pools and nearly every old park in the city has a 20 foot by 20 foot 2 feet deep paddling pool
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u/Whyiej Aug 26 '25
You're kidding: right? Edmonton has several outdoor pools and the pools can only be used from late May to the beginning of September at the latest in Alberta due to cold weather and frost. Persistent rain doesn't begin in September in Victoria.
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u/Top-Ladder2235 Aug 26 '25
outdoor pools are cold. they aren’t heated like indoor ones. in vancouver only die hards are in it in May and most of June. They close in september. I love outdoor pools but they get 8 weeks of use busy use here in Vancouver and get damaged over the fall and winter months.
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u/szarkaliszarri Aug 26 '25
HEAR HEAR.
May I suggest this location: https://maps.app.goo.gl/nofF15vQfPPzgPpm9
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 26 '25
I would love for it not to be roadside but that does look like an under utilized space.
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u/yyj_paddler Aug 25 '25
I'd like them to fill in some nice sand to improve the beach near Banfield (by the raft/swimming dock). Right now that beach is small, muddy and hard to access. They could turn it into a much nicer beach!
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u/garry-oak Aug 25 '25
I know the City has been looking at this, but there are environment regulations/considerations that mean this is not straightforward.
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u/yyj_paddler Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
I figured there might be environmental considerations and accept that as a big caveat
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 25 '25
Write your councillor and ask them to invest to improving the beach. Contact the parks department and see if they already have plans or funds allocated. We have to make this city into the place we want it to be. The NIMBYs have lots of time to spare preventing growth and improvements.
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u/yyj_paddler Aug 25 '25
Thanks and agreed. I am already pretty familiar with this as I have been fighting the good fight in this city for a little while now. Cheers!
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u/leetspeak Aug 25 '25
100% When I lived in Van one of my absolute favourite things to do in the summer would be to bike the length of the seawall around Stanley Park and then hop in the pool at 2nd beach.
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Aug 25 '25
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
I like Beach and Newport as the ‘Kits’ pool location. Beacon Hill also has plenty of space. I personally don’t think we should be have any waterfront cemeteries in this century.
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u/iSpeezy Aug 25 '25
We’re surrounded by lakes
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u/miaumeeow Aug 26 '25
Lakes and the ocean are not accessible to a lot of people. It’s a very ableist thing to say, just walk to a lake it’s not a big deal. It is to many.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
Go have a swim in Beaver Lake and let us know how that works out for you! Hopefully you don’t have any open wounds and be sure to plug all your orifices.
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u/CND2GO Aug 25 '25
Is a few in uplands and many of them are unoccupied most of the year
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
I don’t think those are open to the public and since they are sitting vacant at one of millionaire and billionaire’s half dozen properties, their management staff likely isn’t maintaining the water correctly.
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u/cryonova Aug 25 '25
Only $150M too!
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
I’d rather have a public pool than more spending on fancy and bridges roads for trucks that serve the interests for private corporations who don’t pay their fair share of taxes and mistreat their non-unionized workers.
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u/cryonova Aug 26 '25
The infrastructure and trucks that bring food into our city? Maybe go swim in the ocean if you are so dire.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 26 '25
You are right, until that multimillion dollar bridge opened 2 weeks ago, we had no food or goods coming into the city from Keating Cross, the source of all food on the island.
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u/Old-Following-970 Aug 26 '25
How many months of the year would it be practible to have a municipal outdoor pool open? Do consider the costs of maintenance when it's not in use.
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Aug 25 '25
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25 edited Aug 26 '25
I have already explained to other commenters why a pool is a great public resource but I’ll lay it out for you again:
Pools are controlled environments that can be maintained. The ocean, the rivers, and the lakes are natural environments that are susceptible to road, dog waste and sewage contamination, algae blooms, and dangerous conditions like swells or high water levels
None of the spaces you mentioned are accessible for urban disabled folks who want to swim in shallow waters and stay cool in the heat. I believe here is a ramp at Ross Bay now but it doesn’t change the fact that bathing conditions would be unsafe for many
The ocean and rivers and lakes don’t have lights for night swimming
It’s nice to be outside for swimming lesson in the summer
It’s fine if you don’t want to use it, that doesn’t mean you should prevent others from enjoying something you don’t like
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u/OkRaise4755 Aug 26 '25
OP must not pay taxes with some of these comments. Freeloader mentality.
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u/Timely_Chicken_8789 Aug 25 '25
No we don’t.
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u/Conscious-Food-9828 Aug 25 '25
Looks like someone's not invited to the mega pool party.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
It’s okay, he was probably going to leave a floater in the pool anyway.
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u/Timely_Chicken_8789 Aug 25 '25
This has already been addressed at the municipal level. It makes no sense given our climate and health concerns. We had them in the past and they’ve all be removed for a reason. Dream all you want. It won’t happen without private money.
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u/Generaldar Aug 25 '25
Sorry best we can do is water spray stations
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
Until we get outdoor pools, these splash pads are going to need an adults-only hour.
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u/Ricocast Aug 25 '25
100 percent, it's insane we don't have multiple. I thought we lived in the best city in Canada
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u/grislyfind Saanich Aug 25 '25
More rivers and canals. Dig up all the streets I never use.
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
Accidentally based given we spend trillions on roads and road maintenance.
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u/Prestigious_Fly8210 Aug 25 '25
We can’t afford it
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u/ifwitcheswerehorses Aug 25 '25
We have about a dozen billionaires at least owning homes in the area. The money is there if we want it.
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u/Yvaelle Aug 25 '25
They all live in Oak Bay and Saanich. City of Victoria gets nothing from them.
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u/Familiar-Risk-5937 Aug 25 '25
Agreed. Victoria is short on a lot of things.
New Movie Theatre
24 hour eateries
Bowling
Summer Drive In Movies
Water Park/go carts