(via the City of Ottawa)
The outdoor swimming season will soon be coming to an end for all City of Ottawa outdoor pools, wading pools and supervised beaches. Most splash pads will remain open until mid September.
Beaches
As of Monday, August 17, beaches will no longer be supervised. Lifeguards will remain on duty until Sunday, August 16 from noon to 7 p.m. at all five Ottawa beaches – Britannia, Westboro, Mooney’s Bay, Petrie Island East Bay and Petrie Island River.
Information on water quality at each beach will be available until this time at ottawa.ca/beaches.
Outdoor pools and wading pools
Closing dates and operating hours for most outdoor pools and wading pools vary between August 16 and August 30.
Information about the operating hours of your favourite wading pool or swimming pool is available online atottawa.ca or by calling 3-1-1.
Splash pads
Most of the City’s splash pads will continue to operate between 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. until September 16.
Indoor pools will operate on the summer schedule until Labour Day weekend.
Although the City’s summer water-related activities are coming to an end, many families and friends are still enjoying time at the cottage, boating, or swimming in backyard pools. Ottawa Public Health reminds everyone to ensure safety around water at all times.
Public swimming and other aquatic activities can still be enjoyed during the fall and winter at City of Ottawa facilities. Check out the Fall and Winter Recreation eGuideand Mon Cyberguide francophone des loisirs for public swimming schedules, learn to swim programs, certification programs, specialty aquatics and aquafitness classes.
I think that summer is a very valuable time, because the winter is long. Outdoor swimming pools are only possible when school is out so that lifeguards can be hired, that would otherwise be at school outside the summer months.
It comes as a bit of a shock that the city is nibbling away the last quarter of the summer. Summer time normally goes to labor day, which is on or around September 1st. Outdoor pools and beaches ought to remain open and accessible until then.
If an outdoor pool closes half August and the 2nd week of August has bad weather with rain, say, then really, the outdoor summer swimming season has effectively been shortened to around 5 weeks. It really feels like the city is selling us short, which shouldn’t be necessary. The weather generally remains good, minus rainy days, until labor day easily. They’re depriving us from quality outdoor time by closing this early. I had been meaning to go, but haven’t gotten around to it. Now I have to wait for a whole year to try out the outdoor pool. I know it sounds like a first world problem, but why though?
Is it really that expensive to keep the outdoor pools and beaches open until labor day?
As for money… as the house prices have been rising over the years, our property taxes have been rising along with it as well. The amount of money the city collects, comparing to, say, 10 years ago, is *quite* a bit higher. There should be ample of money to go around… Something really doesn’t seem right here. More and more money being nibbled from us, yet our services are being squeezed…
I agree with Joe. We need to be able to take advantage of every bit of our summer, and these facilities should not be closing up prematurely.
I agree with Joe too. Outside pool should be open until Labour Day not before when the weather is so nice. We are paying with our taxes so let us enjoy it.