WARMINGTON: Only in Toronto would swimming pools be closed because it's too hot

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Hot times, summer in the city but don’t even think about making sure the swimming pools are open 24/7.

This time, the City of Toronto dove into the deep end and is drowning in absurdity. Toronto won’t easily live down the day it closed its public swimming pools to kids and families wanting to cool down because it was too hot.

That’s certainly a new one. You read it right. This happened. It’s nuts — even for the climate change zealots.

“Due to extreme humidex levels exceeding 45 C, outdoor pools will have intermittent closures to ensure staff health and safety protocols are met,” is what the city posted to its webpage. “Please check back for updates. We apologize for the inconvenience.”

This occurred Sunday when temperatures hit a scorching 34 C.

Needless to say, it wasn’t just temperatures that were hot. People being kicked out of the pool were steaming too.

“It was a head scratcher,” said Councillor Brad Bradford, who has asked city staff to explain how it is that on the hottest day of the year so far, someone could make a decision to leave Torontonians standing outside the pool fence looking in. “Are you kidding me?”

To date, he has been able to learn that managers following provincial guidelines determined that it was too warm for lifeguards to safely work.

“This is a city where the mayor has asked people to pay 25% more in property taxes in the past three years so it’s only logical that the pools remain open,” said Bradford.

Morning man on AM 640 Greg Brady reported Monday that he received a message from a lifeguard in East York being directed to leave his post “two hours into a six-hour shift.”

He also had a 15-year-old boy named BK on the show who said he was at the Gus Ryder pool at Sunnyside Beach when he was told he couldn’t swim.

“A woman (staffer) said, you can’t go in because it’s too hot,” he said. “She said it was too hot for the lifeguards.”

About a dozen people were turned away.

CityNews reported “several other people indicated Maryvale Pool in Scarborough, Pine Point Park Outdoor Pool and West Deane Pool were also closed or restricting access due to the high heat and humidity” and they showed pictures of the lineup that ensued as they waited for the pool to re-open.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” said Bradford, who many see as the council member who is best suited to challenge Mayor Olivia Chow for mayor in next year’s election. “There has to be common sense.”

When it comes to public parks, there are often these kinds of rules that trip up common sense. Bradford said he’s run across such examples like when it comes to opening the bathrooms on a nice day in the spring because of a set date, or the time that they close — 10 p.m. — even on the night of fireworks, with the fireworks show still being on.

“People have to go to the bathroom, and they will whether it’s open or not,” said Bradford.

So, it only makes sense to extend the hours until the people have left. But bureaucracy has a tough time with this kind of thing.

However, keeping kids in the heat while they look at a pool is a form of torture that should never happen again. Bradford suggests making sure there are extra lifeguards assigned to ensure they can rotate in and out to for their comfort and safety.

The controversy developed on Monday into a she said, he said scenario in which the mayor blamed the province and the premier said it was the city’s responsibility.

Mayor Olivia Chow texted Newstalk 1010’s John Moore on Monday morning saying, “A few pools were ordered to close last night by Ministry of Labour because of concerns for the lifeguards.”

She added “by 5:30 p.m., only 5 pools were closed out of 85” and “lifeguards are allowed to swim to cool off so I don’t understand the ministry’s rules.”

In a news release issued by the city later Monday, Chow agreed that pools should be open.

“Pools need to be open during a heat wave. That’s obvious. We’re making sure we have the resources to keep them safe and healthy for City workers and all Torontonians. Let’s take care of each other, check on your neighbours, especially seniors if possible and we’ll get through this together,” the mayor said.

But Premier Doug Ford told Jerry Agar on Newstalk 1010 that the “province didn’t order the pools closed” and he suspects the mayor was reading “guidelines” made more for someone pouring asphalt in extreme heat.

Ford’s spokesperson Grace Lee told the Toronto Sun that, after the premier looked into the matter, he learned no inspector from the Ministry of Labour or any other ministry had made any directive or even inspected any Toronto pool.

Saying a lifeguard can jump into a pool at any time to “cool off” and that the using of the guidelines does not add up, he said it’s curious that this was only applied in some pools and only in Toronto.

“I have not heard of this from anywhere else in the province,” said Ford, adding he will call the mayor to straighten out the confusion.

Ford also referenced it shouldn’t be a financial or budget issue since the province has given the city $9 billion in relief and taken off their books the responsibility of maintaining the Gardiner Expressway.

The bottom line, he said, is that decisions on pool openings and closing are a municipal matter and in this case “the pools should be open.”

Chow also took to X to say that water stations have been added to Nathan Phillips Square, Trinity Bellwoods Park and the square at Yonge and Dundas.

ABC’s Ariella Kimmel, who is the executive director of the grassroots non-profit organization encouraging a high quality of living in Toronto, responded to the feud by saying “once again, Mayor Chow tries to throw someone else under the bus instead of taking responsibility” and that “the Ministry of Labour didn’t receive any OHS complaints, nor has there been any inspector activity at City of Toronto pools between June 14 and June 23.”

Added Kimmel: “The City of Toronto took this action on their own. The mayor needs to come clean with Torontonians and take responsibility.” So far the mayor has not responded to requests for comment from the Toronto Sun.

On with John Moore on Newstalk 1010 Monday, Councillor Jon Burnside said Toronto in many ways has become a “no fun” city, as illustrated by such decisions. He made note that at the same time as this pool was closed, a police officer in full uniform was out in the heat doing radar patrol with no rules being employed about his safety.

The councillor said he looked up online to see if other cities closed pools because of heat and found it’s pretty well only Toronto.

The mayor and city certainly handled this better on what was an even hotter Monday. Environment Canada said the temperature reached 36C and the humidex was at 46C.

Chow not only made sure the swimming pools were open for the full day but also instructed that many of them be open until near midnight.

She also put forward a motion to ensure safety measures for lifeguards and swimmers and to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.

In the end, what started as a bellyflop turned into a win, win.

And no more bureaucracy stopping the sound of joy and splashing in Toronto’s pools on a day when its citizens need it most.

jwarmington@postmedia.com