Toronto Executive Committee voted 8-4 Tuesday to cease funding for the Duke of Connaught swimming pool at the S.H. Armstrong Community Centre on Woodfield Road. The pool will close for lack of the $85,000 a year subsidy which has kept it going until now. There is bitterness expressed Wednesday at the role of the mayor, who voted with the majority, because of previous expressions of sympathy with those hoping for an extension. He had been messaged in January by Olympic Swimmer Penny Oleksiak asking him to save the pool and had replied “Gold medal message received.” His tweet below says he will ask the budget chief to try to find a way to save pools. This is no guarantee but it was taken as an assurance that Tory was prepared to save the pool. Mary-Margaret McMahon (Ward 32) made what is being called an impassioned plea in the cause. But on a day when the mayor felt the need to explain how City staff had found several million dollars in savings to balance the Toronto budget, the Connaught pool was just another casualty.
Gold medal message received, @OleksiakPenny. I've asked Budget Chief Gary Crawford to find a way to save these pools. https://t.co/A9N9HK2inH
— John Tory (@JohnTory) January 11, 2017
