At only four years old with her floaties on, Rebecca Marion wanted to jump off the diving board at her neighbourhood’s Entrance Pool.
Her mother, Nicole Patrick, remembers asking Rebecca if she was sure.
“She goes up there, and she gets on the little diving board, and she looks, and she just jumps in. Then she decides she wants to go off the big one … at four years old,” the Bells Corners resident said.
Then Rebecca, after only a moment of hesitation, climbs and jumps off the big one.
But a lifeguard saw her, with her little floaties, and said she couldn’t keep jumping until she learned how to swim.
Her mom says that, after some tears, Rebecca swam as much as she could from four to six years old — even in the wintertime at indoor pools in Ottawa — until she passed the swim test.
“She wanted to go to that pool every single day,” Patrick says about Entrance.
That was 10 years ago. Since then, Rebecca’s been frequenting Entrance Pool — conveniently located just a 10-minute walk away from her home.
But this summer she won’t be able to jump off the diving board. According to College Ward Coun. Laine Johnson in a Facebook post from June 11, Entrance pool staff have decided to close the diving tank for the 2026 season due its current condition and concerns for safety.
It’s part of a pattern as Ottawa faces a widening infrastructure gap, with dozens of local pools, community centres and arenas in declining shape without the money to pay to repair or replace them.
Entrance’s main swimming pool, which just had accessibility stairs for its swimmers installed, is expected to open on June 29.
“Due to the condition and maintenance needs of the dive pool this area will be closed for the 2026 swim season while further investigations are conducted and the best path forward is determined. The main swimming pool will remain open for the summer season,” said Dan Chenier, the general manager of recreation, cultural and facility services at the City of Ottawa.
“When they went to open the pool this season, they went, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s way worse than we thought it was going to be.’ The concrete is exposed to the elements,” Johnson said in an interview.
“The city’s outdoor pools are by far one of the assets that are struggling the most right now across the board, which is concerning given how important they are as places for residents to cool off, stay active, and enjoy recreation during the summer months,” Johnson’s post said.
Entrance’s dive tank is just one of a growing list of aging infrastructure in Ottawa.
In a city council meeting on June 2, numerous Ottawa residents from across the city raised concerns about the deterioration of their community spaces in anticipation of its Long Range Financial Plan.
The plan, approved on June 10 in a 17-5 vote, seeks to address some of that multimillion-dollar funding gap for city infrastructure for the next decade.
Barbara Daniela Gondolfo, an Orléans East Cumberland resident, was one of them.
Gondolfo and other residents referenced a list of almost 100 city facilities that it had rated in fair or lower conditions, with only 40 of which apparently demonstrating sufficient merit to justify replacement.
Rideau-Rockcliffe Coun. Rawlson King said in the meeting that staff was slated to develop a “prioritized facility replacement plan by 2027.”
“I’m here today because I’m deeply concerned about the future of RJ Kennedy Centre and Arena, which is a lifeline to the rural community of Cumberland Village in Ward One,” Gondolfo said to council.
She added that RJ Kennedy, essential for community engagement and connection, was dilapidated, limited by its small kitchen, outdated appliances and groundwater well system.
Gondolfo asked council whether RJ Kennedy, which she said appeared on the list as a structure “approaching end of life,” demonstrated sufficient merit for full replacement.
“The city doesn’t set aside real money for replacements very often. It stretches the life cycle through maintenance and smaller renovation and repair,” Johnson said.
She noted that this was the case in the summer of 2025 for General Burns Pool, which was closed for a large portion of last summer due to renovations.
“It displaced people to swim in various pools, which is fine for a short-term solution, but eventually there’s nowhere for people to go unless we put more money into this west end problem,” Johnson said.
Rebecca, who has even had a birthday party at Entrance, said she felt upset and disappointed because she was excited to go to the dive tank this year after meeting more friends who enjoyed swimming like her.
Johnson says that spaces beyond Entrance are important for fostering the community.
“Never mind another pool, they don’t have a community centre in Bells Corners at all. They don’t have recreational facilities like some of the newer neighbourhoods, so this is really special to them,” she said.
As residents wait to find out if their local spaces will be fixed or replaced, they’re already feeling the community’s loss.
Patrick first moved to the neighbourhood in 1988 at nine years old and has been frequenting Entrance every time it gets warm since then.
“I spent my summers there because I didn’t need to take a bus, my friends didn’t need to take a bus. It was just so easy to get to,” Patrick said, adding that now, with her daughter, the pool holds a special place in her heart.
“It means everything to me, seeing her do the same things I did growing up. It just warms my heart,” Patrick said, adding that she was sad because she was hoping her daughter would be able to have a pool with a dive tank within walking distance this summer, but Rebecca says there’s no longer one close by.
