Funding for Queen E pool withheld over change-room dispute

Construction of the new Queen Elizabeth Pool in Edmonton was in jeopardy Monday after a group that raised $300,000 for the project said it was withholding the money until the city put separate male and female change rooms back into the plan.

"We want to get the pool built and we are still 110 per cent behind the pool. But we're going to do it right," said John Stobbe, spokesperson for Friends of the Queen E Pool Society, a community group. 

In the past month, Stobbe's group became aware the plan for the pool had a single change room for both sexes.

The room contains more than 20 compartments with doors on them so people could change in privacy. Showers will be located outside, beside the pool, and there will be separate washrooms for men and women.

"It's outrageous, it's stupid. Surely they can't be serious," said Christine Elbrink.

"No, I wouldn't step into it. No way," said her friend, Elizabeth Lown, who thinks Stobbe's group is right to withhold the money.

Stobbe said he has yet to meet anyone who supports the unisex change room.

"It's just creating some uncomfortable situations,"  Stobbe said.

"You may segregate a whole group of people who won't go there ... because women need to be with women and men with men."

Stobbe's group is withholding its $300,000 until the city changes the plan.

City officials initially defended the plan for the single change room, according to Stobbe, but there were signs Monday they could be changing their minds.

The city will now meet with Stobbe's group to reach some kind of agreement, hopefully within the next couple of days, said Rob Smyth, branch manager for the city's recreational facilities department.

"That funding is critical for the project to proceed," Smyth said. "So we've got to work with them a lot to get going forward."

The single change room was put in place as a cost-cutting measure and Smyth isn't sure how much two rooms will add to the costs.

"It would mean some kind of reconfiguration, some walls, maybe some different locker configuration," he said

Completion of the pool is slated for the summer of 2010.

Construction on the $5.5 million outdoor pool was set to start this spring. The pool will be located beside the Kinsman Sports Centre in the North Saskatchewan River Valley, and will replace the original 1922 Queen E pool, which was closed in 2004 after it developed a crack in its concrete.

After deciding that repairs to the old pool were too expensive, the city decided to build a new pool in a nearby location. However, funding was a challenge.

The original plan for the pool was pegged at more than $7 million but costs were forced down last fall by a financially-strapped city council.