Reduced Hours planned for Earl Mah Aquatic Centre as reopening date nears

Once the annual maintenance for the Earl Mah Aquatic Centre is complete later this month, there will fewer dates available on the calendar for access to the facility.

That as the City of Prince Rupert faces ongoing staffing challenges in the area of life-guards.

We took note of that last week, with a review of some of the job positions currently available at the Recreation Centre.

An announcement released by the City today notes of the recent period of sudden closures and rearranged scheduling owing to the staffing shortage.

The prospects for adding staff seemingly not on the rise at the moment, the city outlined the situation as follows:

This change will be effective as of the September 12th reopening of the pool, and is aimed at reducing the frequency of closures. This change will ensure that the Department can operate more consistently, and give patrons greater surety around pool availability. 

Changes to opening hours have been focused specifically on non-peak times, in order to impact the lowest possible number of users. Recreation staff have reached out to our frequent users that we know access the facility during non-peak times, who will be most impacted by the changes. 

In addition, the City has and will continue to offer lifeguard training to support local capacity to fill these critical lifeguarding positions. If and when additional capacity is available, this schedule change will be revisited.

The City notes that legally it is required to have a minimum number of lifeguards per patron to operation the facility and with that they have posted the revised scheduled:

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The City also notes that the Recreation Department is continuing with its search for lifeguards, and if you want to join their staff or know someone who might want to, to contact them at 250-624-6707 or email Recreation Manager Ashely Dailge the Rec Manager can be reached at ashley.daigle@princerupert.ca

The full announcement can be explored here.

More notes on civic themes can be reviewed from our archive page.