With the YM-YWCA announcement that its new downtown location will not include a pool, the second of three pool closures is imminent.

Several hundred people use the Y’s pool. Their displacement will add to the number of swimmers who used the McKinnon pool. Add to this the thousands of people who use the Crystal Pool who will soon be looking for a place to swim when that facility is demolished.

Where will these several thousands of people and families go to swim, take ­lessons, do water aerobics, exercise before and after surgeries, and so on? They will fan out to the other pools in the Capital Regional District, all of which are already at capacity.

Add into the mix the many new ­residents moving to the area. B.C. ­Statistics projects that the Capital Regional District’s population will grow by almost 33,000 over the next 10 years. Many of our new neighbours will want to use pools.

Is there a solution? The closures of the Y pool and Crystal pools aren’t just a City of Victoria problem. The entire region is affected.

It’s time for a co-ordinated response and plan developed by a team of ­representatives from each municipality to cover the impending pool gap over the next several years.

Items to consider: How can pool hours be expanded? How would budgets be affected and how can additional costs be covered? Find the creative solutions, such as using hotel pools for swimming lessons.

The Naden pool managers should also be involved — this federally funded pool could support the region more broadly.

Forget the municipal and federal boundaries. Focus on the broader issues of helping as many people as possible access much-needed pool time over the next several years, until the new Crystal pool opens.

Nancy Pearson

Victoria

As an actively practising family physician in Victoria, I witness the waste of health-care dollars on a daily basis. This waste occurs in the setting of a system which makes patients wait for over a year for semi-urgent surgery.

I have one patient who has been ­waiting for two years to even see a neurosurgeon for an operation which can give him back his life. He is now applying for MAID services because he can no longer live with the pain of his condition.

The inertia on the part of politicians who fail to make structural changes in our system is truly a tragedy.

I am heartbroken for my patients who require care only to be told they........

© Times Colonist