Re: "Swim charge marginalizes families, residents say," and "Pool price shortsighted," April 28 Gazette.
It’s easy to get riled up and blame the city for charging $175 for a household swim, but that doesn’t address the real problem – public swimming is not allowed because of the mandatory, province-wide restrictions that are in effect to protect the health system and slow the spread of COVID-19.
Under Step 1 of the province's path forward, which was in place when the city released its $175-and-hour-per-family charge, only one family or group can use Fountain Park Pool at a time. So even if the city offered pool rentals for free, there wouldn’t be enough swim times available to meet the demand.
Last summer Fountain Park Pool reopened with an operations model that was designed to keep users and staff safe. This included limiting the number of people in the pool so people could stay 1.8 metres apart from those they don’t live with; socially-distanced traffic flow; a bag-drop system; and strong disinfecting and cleaning schedules. Fountain Park Pool successfully offered public swimming for members and non-members then. And I believe they could do it safely again.
Here’s why:
Swim Alberta conducted a study from June to November 2020, with 5,446 swimmers from 73 clubs across 32 communities. There were 31,635 group-training hours or 223,324 individual hours in the pool. Of the 14 cases reported, all were contracted outside the daily-training environment. There were zero transmissions of COVID-19 within the cohort swimming model.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there haven’t been any scientific reports to-date that have linked the spread of COVID-19 to pools, hot tubs, or other properly-treated water parks.
Let's encourage the government to review the scientific data and allow swimming pools to offer public swimming. Let’s stop blaming the city for “opening its taxpayer-funded pool doors for a premium price” and work together to find creative (and affordable) solutions that get people back in the pool.
Barbara May, St. Albert
