‘Wildly impressive:’ New Wascana Pool well on its way

It’s a fairly safe bet that the new Wascana Pool, once it’s open, will be one of the most popular public pools in Regina.

The facility is still under construction but it’s on time so far and is expected to be finished this fall, with facility testing to happen in the off-season to get everything ready to open to the public for the 2023 season.

On Friday, a tour of the construction site was organized, including Acting Deputy Mayor Lori Bresciani.

“I saw how the park came alive. (The facility) reinvigorates this whole piece of the park, which I think is beautiful, but it even beautifies it even more. And we’re going to see a lot of young people, young families here coming to enjoy, and all ages. We heard from many seniors that are so excited about this pool as well,” Bresciani said after the tour.

Artist rendering of the new pool. (City of Regina)

Local MLA Derek Meyers took part in the tour as well and called the pool “wildly impressive.”

“We talk about a Saskatchewan that works for everyone, I think this pool really shows that when it comes to accessibility, having swim lanes, having paddling pools, having spray parks. This is really something that people in the Regina area are really going to enjoy,” said Meyers.

When it’s finished, the facilities will include a lane swimming pool, a beach-entry relaxation pool, a lazy river, waterslides, and a 40-person hot tub.

Eric de Waal, facilities project consultant with the City of Regina, said that in all the consultations and community engagement, the hot tub was something everyone wanted.

With this project, de Waal said the big goal was to make enjoying the pool as normal an experience as possible for people living with disabilities.

“Inclusivity and accessibility are the most important things that we’re trying to do for our public here. So it really was one of the top things that, as we were designing, was constantly asking ourselves, ‘How is it that we can accomplish this at this pool?’ ” said de Waal.

The brand new Wascana Pool, still under construction but expected to be open next summer. Eric de Waal explaining the design pic.twitter.com/HRg25eFN9y

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Accommodations include a wheelchair ramp into the lane swimming pool and the beach-entry into the relaxation pool, a tactile map at the entrance to the pool for people with visual impairment, and changes to allow kids in wheelchairs to use the waterslide.

Wheelchair users normally wouldn’t be able to use a waterslide.

“That’s off limits. It’s like, ‘You’re done, you can’t ride a slide’ and we didn’t really feel like that’s fair,” said de Waal.

The facilities were also built with sustainability in mind. Among things like solar panels being used, there’s also a regenerative filter being installed, which greatly reduced the amount of water lost in a filtration system.

“This is one of the ways that we were able to take the mechanical systems here to the next level from a sustainability point of view,” said de Waal.

The facility will also have a concession which will serve pool patrons and people in the park, and will have a playground and spray pad outside the fences that can be accessed by anyone.

The new pool is significantly more elaborate than the old Wascana Pool and de Waal said many people don’t quite understand the scale of what it’s going to be.

“Often it’s called the Wascana Pool replacement, which kind of hints at a like-for-like replacement. That’s not really what we’ve done here at all. This is quite a bit more than anything we would have had here previously,” said de Waal.

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