New Wascana Pool set to open in Regina on June 8

After two years of construction and years of work before that, the new Wascana Pool is set to open June 8.

Two nearly 30-foot-tall waterslides tower over the rest of the complex — one orange and one blue.

There are three pools.

To the north is the leisure pool, which has a zero-depth entry, spray toys, two smaller slides, a lazy river and a basketball net.

In the middle is a hot tub that has water shoulder massagers.

And to the south is the 10-lane swimming pool with diving boards and a climbing wall.

According to Eric de Waal — senior project manager and the city centre precinct captain for the City of Regina — a big part of the design for the pool was making sure everything was accessible as possible, with everything from a tactile map to railings in the leisure pool to signs and locker numbers in braille.

“We were able to make sure that things like ramps into all of the pools were there, but there’s also these subtle things like the low fence around the playground as well as just braille in areas where you wouldn’t normally expect it,” said de Waal.

He said building the Maple Leaf Pool before this one taught the city some lessons on accessibility that it brought to Wascana Pool.

The facility will also have water wheelchairs and water walkers for those with mobility issues.

“Anybody can borrow that water walker and really get into any body of water here without having to use a lift or anything like that. So (we’re) really trying to just make it available to people in a regular way as it would be for anybody else and not having to sort of get them into a sling and lift them into a pool,” explained de Waal.

One of the two tall waterslides will be accessible, but the elevator that will take people to the top of the tower isn’t expected to be operational until the 2025 swimming season.

The Bannock House has come in to run the concession at the pool, but it will be open during leisure swim but may also be open longer hours and will be accessible from the park as well as in the facility.

In addition to the new pools inside the facility, a spray pad and accessible playground are outside the fences so people can enjoy the area without having to pay admission.

The city also made a point of keeping the pools as sustainable as possible, using a regenerative pool water filtration system, a high-efficient water heating plant, using solar panels to offset 30 per cent of the facility’s power use and installing the first recirculating spray pad in Regina.

Because the new pool complex is bigger than the old pool, several trees had to be removed. De Waal said they removed two fewer trees than the original plan called for, putting the final number at 67, and the city paid for the replacement of those trees that were removed to be planted in the rest of Wascana Park.

The project cost $16.4 million but $12 million of that came from the Municipal Economic Enhancement Program (MEEP) from the provincial government.