If you talk to city manager Stephen Van Dine, now is a good time to become a qualified lifeguard in Yellowknife.
"We're in a bit of a growth mode with the (new) Aquatic Centre in terms of staff requirements," he said. "It's going to be a really amazing facility. I think it suits Yellowknife as a capital quite well."
Although there's no official date on when the new facility being built beside the Ruth Inch Memorial Pool will open, Van Dine did say it'll be sometime between May and June 2025. That's a bit of a push back from what the city told SA国际影视传媒 back in June, when it said the pool would be open early next year.
Van Dine said he doesn't know the exact costs for memberships or fees at the pool, but added the city is trying to make it accessible for residents.
"I know there's various pricing points that we have for certain rentals and certain facilities," he said. "The fees that we charge are not intended to be full cost recovery, (but) just to make sure that we've got maximum amount of accessibility and use by Yellowknifers at our facilities."
Other than the water-based areas, there will also be a space to lease for any local business that wants it, though Van Dine said the city is not yet ready to put out a tender for people to bid on it.
The centre has a 25-metre competitive lane pool, a therapy pool for people with mobility issues, a water slide and a lazy river, he added.
He also mentioned that the city has been working with the North Slave Metis Alliance, as well as the the Yellowknives Dene First Nation, on some Indigenous motifs inside the building.
"As you enter the facility, the main entry portion, there's going to be some eye-catching representation that's supposed to resemble the aurora borealis that we're quite excited about," he said.
The Ruth Inch Memorial Pool will likely be repurposed, though the city isn't yet sure for what.
Conversations on that will start sometime in the new year, said Van Dine.
"We've had a study done to look potential possibilities, not so much in terms of actual uses, but what would it take to maintain the facility, or to have it at least become converted to some kind of base that others can then maybe fit up and use for other purposes," he said.
Staff who currently work at the pool will also be transferred to the new aquatic centre, Van Dine added.
In terms of staffing, the city stated that there will be eight full-time maintenance staff, two full-time customer service and booking clerks and casual staff along with the lifeguards that will be working there.
The current cost of the facility right now sits at $71 million, a figure mentioned by Van Dine during budget deliberations last week.
