Long wait times frustrate Leisure Guide registrants

City of Winnipeg Leisure Guide registration got off to a bumpy start Tuesday morning.

Registration for swimming lessons opened at 9 a.m. and by 10 a.m. the city’s online registration tool was experiencing delays of several minutes.

Winnipeggers looking to register on the city’s Leisure Online website were met with a countdown clock asking them to come back several minutes later.

There were also long lines of parents at community centres hoping to be first in line to register their children for swimming lessons for spring.

Parents were in line as early as 7 a.m. at the Cindy Klassen Recreation Complex on Sargent Avenue, with lineups over 40 people deep.

Debra Carmichael made the trek from Stonewall to register her three-year-old daughter Isabel in swimming classes Tuesday. That was after spending most of the morning trying to register her eight-year-old son online.

"I got disconnected because it was too busy, and then I finally waited and waited and reconnected, then counted down the time. About 40 minutes later I got on," said Carmichael.

The city said families need to do as much prep work as they can in advance to reduce online wait times on registration days.

City of Winnipeg representative Andrew Glassco said families should make accounts well before registration day.

"If you’re going to use that online registration, do some of your homework up front, rather than waiting for the actual day," said Andrew Glassco, with the City of Winnipeg.

But that wouldn’t have helped Lisa McDougall, who has had difficulty with both phone registration and in person registration. She said she has given up trying to register on the phone, only to find long waits at community centres.

"I used to phone and leave my speaker on all day and just hear the music all day and eventually someone would pick up and then you would never get in because everything was taken," said McDougall.

So on Tuesday she went to the St. James Centennial Pool. Wait times were over two hours at some points during the day.

"In the Leisure Guide they say, ‘Come down and register in person. There’s four people to accommodate you,’" she said.

"I don’t know what other places are like, but here it’s always busy."

The city said they are constantly looking for ways to improve the sign-up process, and they have already divided registration into two days in an effort to alleviate wait times.

Registration was limited to swimming lessons on Tuesday, and registration for all courses was scheduled to open at 9 a.m. Wednesday.