At the onset of the Great Depression, civic dreamers paid $125,000 to build Sherbrook Pool. Winnipeg’s first Olympic-sized pool was consturcted in 1931 as a municipal relief project. The pool was built in the Art Deco style and its decorative elements include the words Public Baths carved into the stone frame above the front entrance. As of June 5, this entrance may be closed to early morning swimmers.
Current city leadership is considering cutting Sherbrook Pool’s popular morning lap swim for the summer. The morning time is essential to people who have jobs or other duties during the day and evening, including women with children and other caregiving responsiblities. Closure would be a miserly measure by the City of Winnipeg to reduce staff and other operating costs at an established pool.
Recreation reduces social isolation, creates community connections and helps improve physical and mental health. The Winnipeg Recreation Strategy reports that swimming is the most popular indoor leisure activity of Winnipeggers. This is consistent with findings from Statistics Canada’s Survey Series on People and their Communities, which found swimming is one of the most popular sports among Canadians and the most popular sport of Canadian women.
The 2009 report Winnipeg’s Best Kept Secret: A Community Development Vision for Sherbrook Pool found that lower income communities benefit the most from recreation but often face more barriers, including lack of neighbourhood facilities. The report also found that Sherbrook Pool’s large shallow end and warmer water provide a more accessible environment than other city pools, and that people with arthritis, multiple sclerosis and fibromyalgia come to the pool for accessibility reasons. In the summer, the pool provides relief during heat waves, which have more exteme impacts in inner city neighbourhoods. In its council-approved 2024 to 2027 Poverty Reduction Strategy Implementation Plan, the City of Winnipeg commits to diverse recreation and leisure programming to increase participation for low-income and equity groups. Reducing hours at an accessible inner-city pool is counter to this commitment.
The City of Winnipeg has attempted to close Sherbrook Pool in the past. In the early 1990s, the pool was going to be demolished until Friends of Sherbrook Pool successfully lobbied for tri-government infrastrucutre funding to restore and improve the building. In 2012, the pool was abruptly closed for structural reasons and didn’t reopen until Friends of Sherbrook Pool again lobbied and obtained infrastructure funding, including $1 million from the Kinsmen Club of Winnipeg. The pool reopened in 2017 and was renamed Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool.
Any reduction of public swim time will negatively impact recreational opportunities and residents’ well-being. The City of Winnipeg needs to expand not reduce its operating budget for pools and other recreational facilties. Come to 381 Sherbrook Street on a weekday morning to swim and to show support for the neighbourhood’s warmest pool.
Karen Mackintosh swims at Kinsmen Sherbrook Pool and is a former board member of Friends of Sherbrook Pool.
