Ravensong Pool Referendum...what's next?

The Ravensong Pool Referendum is over and the results are in. As you may recall, the purpose of the referendum was to authorize the borrowing required for the expansion of the Ravensong Pool. Specifically, the referendum asked the question "Are you in favour of the Regional District of Nanaimo adopting Ravensong Aquatic Centre Loan Authorization Bylaw No. 1921, 2024, which will authorize the Regional District of Nanaimo to borrow up to thirty million dollars ($30,000,000) in order to finance the Ravensong Aquatic Centre Expansion?".

According to the official results, there were 45,384 eligible voters. 2,877 voters were in favour and voted yes, while 4487 were not in favour and voted no. On a percentage basis, 39.1% of the votes cast were in favour of borrowing the money, while 60.9% were opposed.

In a previous article, I lamented the fact that in a similar referendum in Victoria, 21.1% of the eligible voters turned out to vote and determined the wishes for all. The voter turnout for the Ravensong referendum did not even match the abysmal Victoria numbers. For the Ravensong referendum, the turnout was 16.2% Regardless of the result, we should be embarrassed by the disappointing turnout on such an important issue. We need to do better.

What happens next? On Tuesday April 22, the Board of the Regional District of Nanaimo will receive the official results and provide direction for the next steps. What will the next steps be? Good question. The referendum only asked whether the voters were in favour of borrowing money to finance the expansion. They were not asked if they were in favour of the expansion. The Board had already determined that the expansion was necessary and was not asking the voters if they were in favour of the expansion. That decision was made in the distant past. It appears that the next step for the Board will be to determine how it will pay for the expansion. It is unlikely that we will see another referendum. That may be the only silver lining, as I understand that the budget for the referendum alone was $250,000.

Some of the options available to the Board are: using other reserve funds, increasing taxes, accumulating funds over time until the required amount is reached, and reducing the scale of the expansion to fit within 2025 and following years budgets. The point being that the expansion could proceed with other funding methods that do not require the Board to seek taxpayer approval.

As an alternative, The Board could halt the expansion and determine whether the expansion is absolutely necessary. The Board could also examine the operations of the pool to determine if, for example, longer hours of operation or program scheduling changes could reduce peak time use. Perhaps, an agreement could be reached with some of the area tourist facilities for use of their pools in the off season for children's swim lessons. Further, the Ravensong website indicates that the pool is available for private rentals, at which time there is no public access to any of the facilities. The private rental times are quite limited but could ease some of the congestion.

The referendum did not ask if you wanted an expansion of the pool. It did not ask if you wanted a lazy river, more lanes or expanded change rooms. That was already decided some time ago. The referendum merely asked whether you were in favour of borrowing $30,000,000 to pay for them. The failure of the the referendum is not the end of the expansion. It merely eliminates the borrowing initially proposed by the Board and requires it to rework its budget to find other ways to pay for the expansion. There is no indication at this time that the Board will reconsider its previous decision to expand the pool.

Any concerns that you may have regarding the expansion (namely, do we need it?; can we afford it?) and/or its financing should be addressed to your Board Director. Email addresses for the Directors are on the Regional District website (rdn.bc.ca). The Director for Qualicum Beach is Teunis Westbroek whose email address is mayor@qualicumbeach.com

Jim Noel

April 10th 2025

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