Fredericton considers scaling back size of proposed aquatic centre as price tag hits $81M

Cost increases for a proposed aquatic centre has Fredericton councillors looking at building a facility that could be smaller and less expensive than earlier planned.

Council agreed Monday to direct city staff to potentially change the scope of the project, which involves building three swimming pools in a facility adjacent to the Grant-Harvey Centre.

It comes as the latest cost estimate for the project stands at $81 million, with no support from surrounding municipalities, and no funding commitments from either the provincial or federal governments.

"Ideally it would be cheaper [than $81 million]," said Sara DeGrace, Fredericton's deputy chief administrative officer, speaking after she gave a presentation to council.

"I think what we would want is ... the best facility we can for the amount of money that is affordable to us and a [funding] partner and the both levels of government. So we've got some work to do."

Monday's decision by council officially signals the city abandoning its earlier plan to try to get buy-in for the project from leaders of surrounding municipalities, who sit on the Capital Region Service Commission.

Following local government reform, the commission took on a larger role in seeing the project through from design to completion.

But a year ago, the commission's board of directors — comprised of the mayors of member communities — voted against the pool being funded regionally.

Appeals by the city to the local governance commission, the New Brunswick Office of the Ombud and the minister of local government all failed to bring any reversal of that decision, DeGrace said.

That leaves the city back at Square 1, looking around for any partners who might be willing to help pitch in for the project.

"We don't know who that partner is," DeGrace said. "We'll explore different partnerships and make sure that we do have the other levels of government funding."

Speaking Monday evening, Deputy Mayor Jocelyn Pike said the city plans to "talk to absolutely everybody we can" about helping fund the pool, including community groups like the YMCA.

"We'll go near and far to try to find partners, because as I said, we want a pool," she said.

$2.5M in design work could get scrapped

A new aquatic centre has for years been near the top of the priority list for capital projects by the City of Fredericton.

Pressure to build one picked up in 2018 when the University of New Brunswick announced it planned to close the Sir Max Aitken Pool, where the city's competitive swim clubs are based.

The city and UNB later came to a deal that saw the university get financial help to keep the pool open.

Since then, UNB has offered up the land — valued at $3 million — that the new pool is set to be built on in the Knowledge Park area.

In 2023, the provincial government, federal government and Capital Region Service Commission contributed a combined $1.2 million for the design of the facility, while the City of Fredericton contributed $1.3 million.

The designs were to be based on a plan to build a facility containing a 10-lane 25-metre pool, a three-lane 25-metre pool and a "therapy tank," DeGrace said.

A 2020 report estimated the facility would cost $40 million, nearly half of what it's now expected to cost.

DeGrace said under the new direction from city council, staff will look at tweaking the specs of the facility to bring the cost down.

However, that means the design work already completed will likely have to be scrapped and redone, she said.

"But we've learned a lot about what the needs are, about what goes into designing a pool," DeGrace said.

"So it's not a complete waste ... but yes, overall that document itself, if we don't use it as a contingency plan, becomes moot."