The Saanich Commonwealth Place (SCP) will undergo a boiler replacement next month which will have some impacts on operations for some activities.
From April 3 to 21, SCP will have no heat or warm water in certain parts of the facility as part of its ongoing switch from natural gas to biofuel. During this time, most of the facility will remain open with a few changes.
A news release from the organization outlined several activities that will carry on:
- The pool temperatures will be lower than normal and are expected to decrease over the time frame.
- The hot tub will be available as a cold plunge option.
- The sauna and steam room will remain open as usual.
- The tot’s pool will be closed.
- Cleansing showers before entering the pools are still required. The water will be cold but is still safe.
- Daily pool water and air temperatures will be posted in the facility and on the website for the duration of the boiler outage.
The weight room won’t be affected by the outage, and Kattia’s Kitchen Café will see some modified operations.
The facility recommends anyone attending any of its dryland programs consider extra layers and says there will be a few fans and heaters in some spaces to keep things reasonably warm.
Patrons with a Saanich Access Pass will have the option to pause their membership during the span of the upgrades or visit any of the three other pools in the Saanich community, including the Gordon Head Recreation Centre.
The improvements come after the facility was awarded $4 million in funding as part of The Canada Community-Building Fund (originally named the Gas Tax Fund) in 2018. An earlier news release from the facility says the funding will cover the cost of the upgrade entirely and reduce its carbon footprint by up to 90 per cent.
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Roger Collins
