Dan McDougall returns as interim CAO while Region of Queens looks for full-time replacement

The Region of Queens has appointed Dan McDougall as interim CAO. (Rick Conrad)

The Region of Queens has hired an interim chief administrative officer while it looks for a permanent replacement for Cody Joudry.

Dan McDougall will take over CAO duties from acting CAO Pam Lovelace, who will return to her job as municipal clerk. Lovelace, a one-term Halifax councillor and unsuccessful mayoral candidate, was hired in December.

McDougall has done the top job before at Queens. He was the interim CAO in 2023 after Chris McNeill resigned.

McDougall will fill in as CAO until the region finds a replacement for Cody Joudry, whom the newly elected council fired on Dec. 16, saying he wasn’t the right “fit”.

McDougall is a former CAO of the Municipality of Chester and for the Municipality of Colchester County. He has also worked for the province, as CEO of Housing Nova Scotia, and deputy minister of the Department of Municipal Affairs.

“Dan is a very accomplished executive manager with a proven track record supporting municipalities,” Mayor Scott Christian said in a news release.

“Council felt that it was very important to install an interim CAO who comes with a wealth of experience as a CAO, a strong reputation in the local government sector, and who does not want the permanent job, assuring that they can objectively support the organization through a robust recruitment process to identify the best candidate for the role.”

Council had hired Joudry in September 2023. The region had been without a full-time CAO since that May, when McNeill resigned.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

Region of Queens fires top staffer CAO Cody Joudry

Cody Joudry and Mayor Scott Christian at a recent Region of Queens council meeting. (Region of Queens YouTube channel)

Region of Queens councillors have fired Chief Administrative Officer Cody Joudry, saying that he wasn’t “the right fit” with the new council.

Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR on Monday that no specific incident led to the dismissal of the municipality’s top staffer.

“I think it just came down to a fit. It’s not uncommon when you get a new slate of publicly elected officials and they have their own vision and priorities for the community and direction they want to take the organization, and I think at the end of the day, the fit just wasn’t there. 

“We’re intent on achieving some big things. We have a lot of work to do. And at the end of the day, today’s decision reflected the fact that it was our judgment that in order to best potition ourselves to achieve that work and in the best interest of the community, we’re looking at finding a different person to function in the role of the CAO.”

Councillors called a special meeting late Friday afternoon for Monday morning to discuss a personnel matter in a closed-door session. Christian said the decision to let Joudry go was unanimous.

“I wish Cody all the best in his future endeacours. I think personally we connected and professionally we were able to work well together but at the end of the day, it’s just a matter of the priorities that council has, the vision we have for the future. We weren’t getting traction in advancing some of these priorities.”

Christian said he didn’t want to comment on specifically why Joudry wasn’t the right fit for the new council.

Joudry was hired as the region’s top staffer in September 2023. The region had been without a full-time CAO since that May, when Chris McNeill resigned.

Joudry’s family has roots in Caledonia and he is a member of the L’sitkuk First Nation in Bear River.

Senior staff members filled in as CAO after McNeill left and until the region hired an interim CAO before ultimately recruiting Joudry.

Recently hired municipal clerk Pam Lovelace will take over as acting CAO until council finds an interim replacement for Joudry, while they conduct a longer search for a permanent CAO. Lovelace is a former Halifax councillor and deputy mayor. 

Christian said he expects council to hire an interim CAO sometime in January.

“And then we’re really going to take our time and we’re going to be very deliberate about who we think is the appropriate candidate. Everybody knows this organization has a lot of challenges right now,” Christian said.

“There’s a lot of discontent amongst the public in terms of the services that are delivered by the municiapility. There’s a lot of work to do and we need to make sure that we find the best suited person to function in that role and to support the will of council to implement our decision making in a way that is going to advance things in a constructive way.

“There’s a new group of people who are representing the will of the residents of Queens and we are committed to working together, pursuing a new direction and we made the determination that we are going to best be served by undergoing our own process to find our right-fit CAO to work with us because we have a lot of work to do.”

He said councillors ultimately came to their decision during their closed-door session on Monday.

Christian said council decided to appoint Lovelace as acting CAO because they didn’t want to add more work to their senior managers. He said they already have some good candidates to fill the interim CAO position, until they can find a permanent replacement.

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Region of Queens hires former Halifax councillor as municipal clerk

Pam Lovelace, a former Halifax councillor and mayoral candidate, is the Region of Queens’ new municipal clerk. (Facebook)

The Region of Queens has hired a former Halifax councillor and deputy mayor as its new municipal clerk.

Pam Lovelace also ran unsuccessfully for mayor of the Halifax region in October’s municipal elections.

She placed third behind winner Andy Fillmore and runner-up Waye Mason.

“I am honoured to join the incredible team at Region of Queens Municipality and continue working in municipal government in rural Nova Scotia,” Lovelace said in a Region of Queens news release Monday afternoon. 

Originally from Kentville, Lovelace is a former legislative support clerk in Halifax’s clerks office and a former communications and project manager for the Municipality of East Hants. She is also an instructor in local government at Dalhousie University.

She was elected to Halifax regional council in 2020.

Queens has been searching for a municipal clerk for a while. The clerk is essential to the operation of council and its committees. Lovelace will also be the region’s freedom of information officer. And she will be the main researcher in developing policies and bylaws.

Queens CAO Cody Joudry said in the release that Lovelace is a “high-calibre candidate”.

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Switching to indoor pool for Queens impractical, expensive, councillors hear

Work is underway on the $8.1-million outdoor pool at Queens Place Emera Centre. (Rick Conrad)

The dream of an indoor pool for Queens County was likely sunk on Monday night.

Two weeks ago, Region of Queens councillors asked CAO Cody Joudry to investigate the feasibility of turning the outdoor pool now under construction at Queens Place Emera Centre into an indoor facility.

At their meeting on Monday night, councillors heard that it’s not so straightforward, or cheap.

Joudry said the $8.1-million outdoor project would likely balloon to at least $30 million if councillors decided to change it. He said the cost to taxpayers of the current project is less than one cent on $100 of assessment over 20 years. For an outdoor pool, that could go up to five cents.

“Council needs to either pick an indoor pool or an outdoor pool, but you can’t really convert an outdoor to an indoor pool,” he told councillors.

The region secured $3 million from an anonymous donor and $2.2 million from the province for the current project. It’s picking up the remaining $2.9-million tab.

Joudry said if the region changes or stops the project now, it could be on the hook for “sunk costs” of up to $2 million — in penalties or work that’s already done. And the municipality may also have to look for new funding, which would further delay the project.

The region would also have to come up with a whole new design.

Adam Grant, the region’s director of engineering and public works, said the current design is not easily adapted. He said some of the work already done could be salvaged, but much of it would have to be abandoned.

“When you start adding heating systems and take a facility that was deisgned to operate three months of the year conducive to the climate and turn it on its flip side and tell it it’s got to operate nine more months of the year, heating, air conditioning, ventilation, as well as condensation control. You start adding structural steel known to support a roof or with roof loads or snow loads. It’s not a simple matter of just putting a roof over it.”

District 3 Coun. Courtney Wentzell said he wants the region to consult with community members. He said it was a big issue during the recent election campaign, and most people who were in favour of a pool wanted an indoor one.

Mayor Scott Christian campaigned on getting an indoor pool. But on Monday, he told QCCR that changing it up would be a big burden to taxpayers.

“The total bill for the residents is about 3 million bucks with that project completion. 
And so incurring $2 million in sunk costs without any assurances about the extent to which we’ll actually be able to repurpose any of what has already been done, I think we can’t go there right now.”

Christian said he’d like to get the Queens Community Aquatic Society involved again and re-form the region’s pool committee.

Councillors decided to stick with the status quo and allow the outdoor pool project to continue. The heated, 25-metre pool is expected to open by 2026.

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Use less water, Region of Queens warns residents, businesses

Glass of water being filled at a tap

The Region of Queens has issued warnings about low water levels in the town reservoir. (Ed Halverson photo)

The Region of Queens is asking residents and businesses in Liverpool and Brooklyn to restrict their water usage.

Officials issued a third voluntary water conservation order late Wednesday. They first warned people about the water levels on Nov. 1.

The region says its 1,400 water utility customers must use less water because the municipality’s Town Lake reservoir is getting dangerously low.

Queens CAO Cody Joudry said Thursday that he hopes residents and businesses co-operate.

“I wouldn’t call it at a critical level, however it’s been heading that way for a while,” he said.

“It is continuing to go down at this point. It’s definitely getting worse so that’s why we really want to talk to the public and encourage them to actively try to conserve water.”

Mayor Scott Christian was not available for an interview Thursday. But he did post this video on his Facebook page Thursday afternoon appealing to municipal water users to cut their consumption.

Queens County has had very little rain this fall. According to Environment Canada, the area had only 30.1 millimetres of precipitation in October. So far, only 4.1 mm has fallen in November. 

Joudry says the area needs to get at least 50 mm a week to replenish the reservoir to comfortable levels.

In their latest update, the municipality says if the situation worsens, they may have to begin mandatory conservation measures. Failure to follow those could result in fines and having your water cut off.

“Overall we’re not seeing a lot of decreased usage,” he said. “Those that are conserving water, we appreciate it. And those that aren’t, we are asking them to take it seriously and take immediate action … that people actively and consciously and deliberately take steps immediately to use less water than they were last week, than they were the week before that and the week before that. … We don’t want it to be dire.”

Joudry says the region has had worse water levels in the past. The reservoir isn’t yet at the low levels experienced in 1992, 1994 or 2001.

“When we get down to those levels, we’re implementing mandatory water conservation. And if people aren’t adhering to those rules, there could be tickets or disconnections and we don’t’ want to get to that point.”

Joudry said it’s difficult to say how close the region is to enacting more severe measures. But he said if things don’t improve in the next two to three weeks, it may come to that.

“I remain hopeful that usage goes down and rain occurs. Maybe more than one day of hard rain would be great.”

Joudry said he has reached out to the region’s Top 10 largest water consumers to explain the situation and ask them to start conserving water immediately.

“I don’t want to put all the weight or the onus on them. Everyone needs to do their fair share.”

The region did not do a baseline measurement of individual water usage when they first identified the problem about three weeks ago. But Joudry said officials are discussing ways to judge whether specific residents and businesses are using less water.

And he said they don’t plan yet to contact users directly. He said he hopes the municipality’s updates on social media and on radio will get the message across.

“I’m not sure at this point what we can do at this point, other than a door knocking campaign. It may come to that. For example, if we get to mandatory conservation measures, there might be letters that go out and door knocking.”

Joudry said he understands that conservation efforts will be different for everybody, depending on what their needs are.

Some of the things you can do to reduce your water usage include: reduce the frequency of flushing toilets; do fewer loads of dishes and laundry; stop washing vehicles; take shorter showers; turn off taps when not in use while showering or brushing your teeth; and fix any leaks or dripping faucets.

And if you have a suspected leak in your water line, contact the municipality at 902-354-7170. 

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Queens County to have full-time senior safety co-ordinator

Shelley Walker is Queens County’s senior safety co-ordinator. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED WED., NOV. 13, 12:27 P.M.

Queens County will be getting a full-time senior safety co-ordinator.

In their first meeting since the Oct. 19 election, Region of Queens councillors voted Tuesday to fund five-day-a-week senior safety services in Queens.

Representatives of Queens Care Society asked council in August to consider making the senior safety co-ordinator a full-time employee of the region.

In their August presentation to council, representatives from the non-profit society said they couldn’t afford to make the job full time. The group receives a $25,000 grant from the Nova Scotia government, as well as $5,000 from the Region of Queens. 

Shelley Walker, the current co-ordinator, works three days a week. But advocates say the job should be full time because Walker can help only a fraction of the seniors in need.

The co-ordinator helps promote senior health, safety and independence, working with older residents to help them stay in their own homes. 

Councillors voted Tuesday to provide up to $35,000 in funding to Lunenburg County Home Support to make the job full time until Oct. 31, 2025.

Coun. Maddie Charlton said she expects Queens Care Society to return to council before then to seek longer-term funding.

“I think that they would like an opportunity to see just how it fares out,” Charlton told council.

“It’s my understanding that the group is happy with this for now for the year. … I’m happy to support this now. They do need the increased funding to make sure we have that capacity.”

Society chairman Grant Webber told councillors in August that as a part-timer, Walker can help only 7.5 per cent of the 3,300 Queens County residents over 65.

In August, he asked the region to create a full-time senior safety position at a salary of $53,000 plus benefits, travel expenses and office space. 

Webber told QCCR on Wednesday that he’s pleased the municipality OKed the funding.

“I think it’s a wonderful decision. We’ve got some things to work out and get an agreement with the municipality,” he said.

“We’re very pleased and we’re hoping that the municipality will take over full funding of the senior safety program, because with the funding from the municipality and the (provincial) grant, we’ll have a senior safety co-ordinator here for five days a week.”

He said other Nova Scotia municipalities have full-time co-ordinators and he hopes Queens will follow suit.

In an October staff report, councillors were told that historically, the co-ordinator focused on senior safety three days a week. For the rest of the week, she worked as a supervisor for Queens Home Support.

Financial difficulties forced Queens Home Support to close earlier this year. Lunenburg County Home Support now looks after those services in Queens. 

According to the October staff report, the year-long funding will give the Region of Queens and the Lunenburg group time to assess the service. 

On Tuesday, Queens CAO Cody Joudry assured councillors and the public that the co-ordinator will still be based in Queens County.

“There’s never been any discussion whatsoever about the idea that that position would be based in Lunenburg.”

In response to a question from Coun. Stewart Jenkins, Joudry said the region hasn’t yet analyzed how much it would cost to make the co-ordinator a municipal employee.

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Region of Queens considers more enforcement, collection to curb greybox garbage problem

Garbage piled up at one of the ‘greybox’ sites in Queens County. (Submitted)

Region of Queens officials plan to take action to curb the ongoing garbage problem in the county’s increasingly popular cottage country.

Councillors will vote on several recommendations at their June 25 meeting that they hope will mitigate chronic trash pileups and overflows at so-called “greybox” sites in areas such as Labelle and Molega.

There are about 40 greybox sites on or near private roads throughout the municipality. They consume half of the region’s garbage collection budget. 

The private roads do not have the regular garbage pickup service of most property owners who live on public roads. So the municipality has dropoff sites throughout the region where residents can deposit their waste, recyclables and compostables.

The region picks up the garbage once a week in spring, fall and winter and either two or three times a week in summer months.

District 6 Coun. David Brown has a lot of recreational or cottage properties in his area. In January, he asked the region’s staff to come up with possible solutions to the refuse abuse.

Brown said that especially in the busier summer months, people regularly just toss their trash on the ground around the greyboxes, instead of putting it inside. They’ll also leave big household items like furniture at the sites, even though the municipal landfill is nearby.

Even non-residents regularly leave their garbage, compounding the problem. Some bring their trash in on Fridays and dump them at the sites when they visit their properties on the weekends.

“The bylaw says that those grey bins are for the residents of private roads only for bagged garbage, created on site,” Brown said. “And people who are spending the weekend and dumping everything on Sunday night as they leave, a lot of that stuff can be taken to the landfill.” 

Region of Queens officials want to crack down on how people on private roads use greyboxes for their garbage. (Rick Conrad)

CAO Cody Joudry said he and other staff members have had many discussions about why the problem persists and how to fix it.

“At some of our worst sites, it starts to reach a threshold … at which it seems to overflow,” Joudry said. “And once one person does something, then all of a sudden everyone does it, sort of disrespect the whole thing.”

Joudry said staff suggest trying a few different things to see what works. He made five recommendations:

  • install cameras to record when and how often the sites begin to overflow
  • capture license plates of offenders and send notices to vehicle owners warning that further offences will result in fines
  • add more greyboxes to see if it reduces the amount or frequency of overflows
  • look for other locations where the boxes are less visible to non-residents
  • increase the collection frequency at some locations from Dec. 1 to March 31.

Joudry said the region tried to install surveillance cameras at some sites years ago, but people stole them. He said staff have ideas about how to limit or prevent that from happening again.

Joudry said staff would report to council in mid-winter 2025 on the effectiveness of their efforts.

District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy said the areas have unreliable internet and cell service, so real-time surveillance may be difficult.

He said he’d also like to see an area for people to leave large items so they don’t get in the way of the greyboxes. He suggested a semi-annual “dump day” for people to drop large items, and to hold a roadside giveaway once a year.

“If we don’t get that big stuff moved out from in front of the bins, people are … going to throw their garbage down there and then somebody else throws the garbage there and then you’ve got the bins that aren’t even full, you can’t get at them becasue of the big items in front of them,” Fancy said.

Brown said that he hopes the situation will improve with some education and enforcement. 

“We as a region allow people to take four loads to the landfill every month without charge. … So if somebody has taken the effort to load a chesterfield on the back of a truck and drive it out to the grey bin and throw it on the ground in front of the bins, it’s an extra 15 minutes to go to the landfill and dispose of it properly.  … We need education and a little bit of enforcement and I think the problem will go away on its own.

“And I really applaud staff for coming through and trying an approach because for the past 10 years we have suffered from analysis paralysis. … This starts us on the approach to getting something done. And I think as word gets around that there’s some enforcment happening, people will not want to pay that $682.50 fine.”

The municipality says the extra measures could cost up to $40,000, with the majority of that going to increased weekly garbage collection in winter.

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Region of Queens councillors to vote on play park write-off

Kids play this week at the splash pad at Etli Milita’mk, the universally designed play park in Liverpool. (Rick Conrad)

UPDATED JULY 20 at 10:30 a.m.

Region of Queens councillors will vote next week on whether to write off almost $51,000 in cost overruns and funding shortfalls at the universally designed play park in Liverpool.

Councillors voted last week to move the issue forward to their June 25 meeting for a final vote. Most of them appeared to support absorbing the cost.

District 2 Coun. Ralph Gidney was the only one against the motion to vote on the matter at their next meeting.

The provincial organization recently asked the municipality to cover $50,962 in unpaid bills on the $630,000 playground. Some $5,988.79 of that is interest on the overdue account.

Joanne Veinotte, director of corporate services, told councillors last week that Autism Nova Scotia told the municipality they believed that the region would cover any shortfalls.

“Fundraising was less than forecasted. The ACOA contribution was less than budgeted and there were cost overruns such as short-term security for surfacing materials, rescheduling of a rubber surface contract and extension of a rubber surface area. This all contributed to the overage.”

Beyond that, however, details about the overdue account were sparse. It was unclear what the outstanding bill is for or to whom, or when Autism Nova Scotia realized that there wasn’t enough money on hand to cover all the expenses of the project.

The playground is named Etli Milita’mk (pronounced ed-a-lee milly-dumk), which is Mi’kmaw for “we are playing here”. It opened last October, after years of community fundraising led by Queens County resident Debbie Wamboldt and others. It’s designed to be inclusive and accessible for everybody, regardless of ability or age. 

The community group raised about $100,000 on their own, with the region donating the land near Queens Place Emera Centre and committing $111,773 from its community investment fund. ACOA and the provincial government also contributed to the project.

Autism Nova Scotia issued charitable tax receipts and held the money in trust to pay the region for construction as invoices were submitted. The region also agreed to own, operate and maintain the playground.

QCCR tried numerous times for an interview with officials from Autism Nova Scotia. Last week, a spokeswoman said in an email that they were “unable to provide an interview at this time”.

QCCR asked the municipality this week for clarification on the account. In an email, Heather Cook, the region’s communications and engagement co-ordinator, explained that the municipality has paid all bills related to the park and no suppliers are owed money.

Because of cost overruns and funding shortfalls, she said, Autism Nova Scotia contacted the region in April to say that it would not be paying the full amount of the final invoice, which the municipality issued in January. The group did not pay any interest on overdue invoices during the term of the project, resulting in interest charges which contributed to the shortfall.

Councillors will vote on June 25 “to fund the outstanding interest charges and project overrun that (are) owed to the municipality due to the funding shortfall.”

The money would come from the municipality’s accumulated budget surplus.

District 1 Coun. Kevin Muise said last week that councillors had voted to donate the land and approve funding from the community investment fund. But he said they didn’t vote to cover any overruns.

District 3 Coun. Maddie Charlton asked if there was any additional information that staff could share with councillors before their next meeting.

CAO Cody Joudry, who took over in November, said there wasn’t.

“I don’t believe there is any other documentation to provide council. … From Autism Nova Scotia’s perspective, they’re like, ‘Well, it’s not really fair to make us cover the difference because we were just the pass-through and really the region was the one who was managing the project.’

“I think if we were doing this over again, we would have brought this to council a lot sooner, like in the construction phase and talked about these issues. But I can’t do anything about that now. So, unfortunately, Coun. Charlton, I do not believe there is any more information I can bring you.”

Councillors did not want to ask Autism Nova Scotia or the local fundraising group to cover the extra costs.

Mayor Darlene Norman said that it was nobody’s fault. Construction delays and weather last summer contributed to the extra expenses. 

She said in an interview Monday that it didn’t help that the region was without a full-time CAO for much of last year. Former CAO Chris McNeill left the job in May. 

“Remember, this was a time when we had no CAO last year, directors were shifting and taking those roles. And then we had the boil water situation happening, we had no permanent CAO. I’m not saying that’s any reason why this may have occurred, but obviously there was lack of communication between Autism Nova Scotia and Region of Queens staff.”

Norman said that in future, the region would likely approach projects like this differently.

“It was a lesson that if a project like this should ever be undertaken again there needs to be very firm rules respecting who manages what and conversations and communication between the two partners.”

The June 25 council meeting will be held at the Westfield Community Hall in North Queens.

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Region of Queens approves balanced budget with no tax rate hike

The Region of Queens approved its 2024/25 budgets on Monday. (Rick Conrad)

Region of Queens council approved a balanced budget on Monday with no tax rate increases and almost $30 million in spending.

At a special meeting, councillors also approved a $21.5-million capital budget, which includes the start of big projects like the water and sewer extension to the Mount Pleasant area and the new outdoor community pool at Queens Place Emera Centre.

Spending is up about $4 million from last year, to $29,848,303. The region’s water utility reported a $442,122 deficit.

Mayor Darlene Norman said in an interview that it was important to councillors not to increase the tax rate.

“We live in a great county and the budget reflects the fact that we are moving ahead,” she said.

“Many things in the budget remain the same. We’ve increased funding for fire departments for their truck purchases. The cost of those trucks is astronomical and we know how as volunteers how hard they work.

“It’s a good budget, it recognizes some requests from all parts of our county.”

Council committed an extra $126,772 in 2024/25 to help the county’s five fire departments with the rising costs of replacing fire trucks.

It also raised the household income threshold for the low-income tax exemption by $5,000. Property owners with a total income of $35,000 or less can qualify for up to $400 off their tax bill. The tiered structure gives the highest break for the lowest income.

“We understand that people financially struggle,” Norman said, “which is why … we increased the amount of money that people can make in order to claim a reduction on their taxes, … which is very generous, I believe, for a municipality of our size.”

The region reported a $644,000 surplus from last year, largely from rising property assessments, higher deed transfer tax revenue and unintended savings from unfilled staff positions. 

The region’s capital plan is packed.

CAO Cody Joudry said in an interview that it addresses a lot of concerns around the municipality.

“In terms of capital budget, it’s expansion of water, wastewater, there’s a lot of safety improvements and upgrades and a lot of investment in infrastructure and community assets, so I think that’s pretty significant.”

A little more than $7.8 million of the $21.5-million capital budget for 24/25 is provincial funding. Almost $2.5 million is from federal sources. About $3.8 million is from long-term borrowing, while $3.53 million is from a combination of municipal reserves and municipal surplus.

In addition to the new pool and the water and sewer extension, some other capital projects include:

“There are things on there that are very important,” Norman said. “Of course, they will not all get done (this year), but by putting them on here, it shows that these are priorities and start them, do the best that you can do with them.”

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Milton Centennial Pool won’t reopen this summer

The Milton Centennial Pool suffered severe damage in last July’s torrential rains and floods. (Rick Conrad)

The Milton Centennial Pool will remain closed this summer.

“It is very, very unfortunate, but the Milton pool will not be opening this year,” Region of Queens Mayor Darlene Norman said Monday.

The pool suffered significant damage in last July’s torrential rains and floods. Councillors heard Monday that it would cost from $100,000 to $150,000 to fix the pool.

The rains and flooding last summer damaged the pool liner. Even though the region ordered a new liner immediately, it arrived only in late December. So staff winterized the structure as best they could, according to Adam Grant, the region’s director of engineering and public works.

This spring, the region’s staff discovered the base of the pool had been damaged even further.

Grant said it would take about 12 weeks to do the work, with the “best-case scenario” of having the pool open by August.

Mayor Darlene Norman said the North Queens Aquatic Centre in Caledonia will be open.

“Unfortunately, for this summer we will be unable to provide seasonal swimming lessons at Milton pool,” Norman said in an interview.

“We did make the decision and we made it now so that we don’t have people’s hopes up.”

The region is going ahead with hiring lifeguards for the pool in Caledonia. CAO Cody Joudry said the pool staff hired will be employed for the whole summer. 

Councillors decided to keep the $40,000 budgeted for Milton pool operations in this year’s budget. They suggested that money could go toward extending the hours at the pool in Caledonia, covering mileage for lifeguards who have to travel to Caledonia or working out a deal with Queens County Transit to provide transportation for pool users in south Queens to north Queens.

They asked staff to report back with recommendations on what to do this summer and next year, until the new outdoor pool at Queens Place Emera Centre can be built.

Last Friday, Queens MLA Kim Masland announced $2.2 million in provincial funding toward the $7.2-million pool. The region has already committed $2 million, with another $3 million coming from a private anonymous donor.

Norman said last week that the region hopes to start construction in spring 2025, with an opening in 2026.

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