The Prince George Aquatic Centre will be closed for at least two years, starting January first, 2026.

By Tommy Osborne

Aquatic Centre closing

Pisces Swim Club worries about potential program cuts with Aquatic Centre closure

Oct 24, 2025 | 4:36 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – The City of Prince George announced the Prince George Aquatic Centre will be closing for at least two years beginning on January 1, 2026, as a full scale $37 million renovation and upgrades project is set to begin.

“Like any facility, just like a house, you can maintain it as well as you want, to which we have done a really good job of this pool. But at some point you might have to remove your insulation and redo it. You might have to redo the roof, you might have to do the floors, you might have to do the decks, and so on. That’s exactly what we’re doing with the Aquatic Centre,” said the City’s Director of Civic Facilities and Events Andy Beesley.

“Everything from the exterior of the building, which needs addressing, it’s leaking a little bit. The roof, the insulation needs to be increased dramatically because of our cold winters and so on. But it’s also things like redoing all the deck tiles, all the washrooms, all the change rooms,” he continued.

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With the planned reopening being early 2028, it has swimmers and swim clubs across the city concerned. For the Prince George Pisces Swim Club, it could mean shrinking their program and what they can offer.

“The little swimmers starting at age five that swim in the moveable-floor pool will be impacted the most. We will have less pool space so we’re going to have to cut at least 50 swimmers from those younger ages,” said Pisces President Jen Oviatt.

The Pisces, alongside all other swimmers, will be using the Canfor Leisure Pool while the Aquatic Centre is closed. The Canfor pool doesn’t have the same shallow water accessibility for younger swimmers —hence the possibility for cuts — but in addition to that it also means fewer lanes.

“Right now we have three hours with three lanes. We’re going down to three hours with two lanes, so that’s 15 swimmers for each hour that’s going to go down just for that lane cut alone,” Oviatt said.

While the swimmers have trained in the Canfor pool in the past, Oviatt said it isn’t the preferred choice, noting that the water conditions aren’t as optimal for competitive swimmers and the depth of the pool, or lack thereof in some cases, isn’t ideal for the club. Beyond the training conditions though is the inability to host events, potentially hampering interest and growth for the club.

“Our competitive season is from May until August, so that is two whole competitive seasons for our club,” Oviatt said.

The City of Prince George says it understands the concerns swimmers have, with Beesley saying to those concerned that “we agree with you. It does suck. It’s really difficult.” However, he says this is the best way to proceed, noting that years of behind the scenes effort and research has shown getting all these huge upgrades done in a two-year span is the best way to go.

“The other alternative we could do is we could split up each phase into different time periods. Close the pool, rip it apart, fix it, put it back together, and then close it again a little way down the road. But that would just go on and on and on. It’s actually more efficient, both in terms of money and time, just to get it done all at once,” Beesley said.

As for using the Canfor pool, Beesley says he knows it’s a smaller facility and fitting everyone in will be a challenge, but adds he and the City will do everything they can to make it work as best as possible.

“We’re extending the hours. We’re going to bring all of our Aquatic Centre staff down there and do whatever we need to do to make sure that we can fit everything in,” Beesley said.

The City says the Aquatic Centre is expected to reopen in “early 2028.”

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