Acadia University located in Wolfville, Nova Scotia has announced that they will be keeping their pool closed indefinitely “to ensure the safety and well-being of pool users and to address annual financial losses.” The pool which closed back in March amid the COVID-19 pandemic is home to the university’s varsity swim team and the local age group team the Wolfville Tritons.
- Read the full press release from the university here.
Regarding the announcement, Acadia’s Vice-President of Finance and Administration and CFO Chris Callbeck said that “while providing exceptional value to our community, the swimming pool at Acadia University has been operating at an annual deficit for the past several years.”, “The global pandemic has impacted the University financially, and we simply cannot justify the expenditure at this time.”
Acadia University competes in the Atlantic University Swimming (AUS) conference within USports along with Dalhousie University, Memorial University, the University of New Brunswick, and Mount Allison University. Last year at the 2019 AUS Championships, the Acadia men’s team won the title, ended Dalhousie University’s 21-year winning streak. The women’s team placed second at the championships, with Dalhousie winning their 19th straight title.
While the Canadian collegiate swimming season has been cancelled for the fall of 2020, there remains a possibility that the winter season will go ahead as scheduled in for the winter semester. Acknowledging that possibility, the school has said that they will be working with the swim team to find alternative training facilities in the meantime.
Wolfville is located an hour outside of the province’s capital, Halifax, and has a population of just under 5,000 people. Nova Scotia has had a total of 1,088 cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak and 65 deaths. There are currently 2 active cases in the province.
The situation in Wolfville is similar to that which originally unfolded in Newfoundland and Labrador recently wherein the province’s only long course pool, the Aquarena, originally announced that they had no short term plans to re-open their doors. Differing from Acadia, however, the Aquarena will be reopening this month after receiving $600,000 in funding ($400,000 from the provincial government and $200,000 from Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador.)