Fort St. John to explore future of North Peace Leisure Pool

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The City of Fort St. John has been given full responsibility for a new aquatic facility in Fort St. John after the regional district announced it is stepping away. (File)

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The City of Fort St. John has begun to explore the future of the North Peace Leisure Pool after being given sole responsibility for the project.

On August 15th, the Peace River Regional District (PRRD) announced it had dissolved the steering committee involved with replacing the North Peace Leisure Pool and was handing the project over to the City of Fort St. John.

The current facility has been open since 1997, and – while it is PRRD-owned – it is operated by the City of Fort St. John. The PRRD, the District of Taylor and the City of Fort St. John have been collaborating on plans for a replacement facility since 2017.

In an interview with Energeticcity.ca, the City of Fort St. John’s communication manager Ryan Harvey explained the city would be taking full control of the project.

“The city owns and operates several recreational facilities already…we recognize the need for our community, and for our region, to have a new aquatics facility,” Harvey said.

“This just allows us to streamline the process going forward.”

Harvey stated the city was in charge of the project, but would be exploring partnerships with the PRRD and the District of Taylor and the city was still in the early stages of the process at the moment.

“[What we need to work on is] understanding [and] finalizing things like the scope of the project, finalizing site locations, all of those pieces and big decisions that need to happen before we can fully understand what any potential impact [on city taxpayers] is,” Harvey said.

Harvey explained the city is currently putting together a plan for the project as well as a working group that will include city councillors to best guide the creation of the new facility.

According to city council’s August 25th meeting agenda, councillors will be voting on whether to cancel plans to renovate the parking lot at City Hall and reallocate the project’s $250,000 in funds to allow staff to begin working on the new pool.

City council will also be voting to create a working group to guide the project moving forward, and will be electing two councillors to the group.

Harvey advised curious residents to keep an eye on the Let’s Talk Fort St. John platform updated on August 14th, where staff have established an “Aquatics Facility” page.

“We’re committed to ensuring that we provide the most accurate, realistic picture that the residents can expect as we get to those [next] stages,” Harvey said.