Key Vote: School Pools

Historically, school pools were built because the residents of surrounding communities decided that their children needed a place to swim, for approximately $6 million each. Keeping the city's 85 school pools would mean that this $510 million did not go to waste. Pools lead to a net increase in public health. A lack of physical education costs an estimated $2.1 million in health care and contributes to the premature deaths of 21,000 Canadians a year.

The pools recieve millions of community visits a year. Closing them would target poor children that could not afford a private gym. Refusing to authorize an audit impeded finding a solution to keeping them open.

Vote Content: That council authorize the audit of school pools in order to find out which ones the city could fund

Voting AGAINST keeping pools open: 15
Berardinetti, Duguid, Feldman, Ford, Holyday, Li Preti, Lindsay Luby, Mammoliti, Milczyn, Minnan-Wong, Nunziata, Ootes, Shiner, Sutherland, Tziretas

Voting FOR pools: 18
Ashton, Balkissoon, Bussin, Cho, Chow, Disero, Filion, Flint, Hall, Johnston, Jones, McConnell, Mihevc, Miller, Pantalone, Rae, Silva, Walker

Vote Date: December 2001

Vote Specifics: Notice of Motion I(4)

For more information, see the City Council Minutes. (PDF file opens in a new window.)