Photo courtesy CUPE Local 4400

CUPE Local 4400 hopes its donation of $100,000 puts fundraising over the top in the effort to save Toronto school pools. From left to right: TDSB chair Bruce Davis, CUPE 4400 president John Weatherup, and David Crombie, chair of AWG.

The union representing 11,000 employees of the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) has donated $100,000 to boost efforts to keep the city's school pools open.

John Weatherup, president of Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) Local 4400 presented the cheque to Bruce Davis, chair of the TDSB, at a press conference on Tuesday, Jan. 12.

"We believe this contribution will put the fundraising over the top and will keep Toronto school pools open for another year," says Weatherup.

The donation came on the same day Toronto Lands Corporation (TLC) was to consider recommendations outlined in a recent report by the Aquatics Working Group (AWG). The school board will get the chance to review TLC's decision on Jan. 19.

The 33-page report, A Solution for TDSB Pools, presents a strong case to reopen the school board's nine remaining pools, which face permanenet closure this year. It states there has been significant community outreach along with an increasing number of new permit applications and associated new permit revenue. The report shows, as of Dec. 31, 2009, sufficient permit revenue (estimated at $303, 957) has been secured to fully cover the pools' incremental operating costs (estimated at $295,061) over the period from January to June 2010.

While the AWG, led by former Toronto mayor David Crombie, has focused its efforts on saving the nine pools, the group continues to work on strategies to increase use of the 23 pools currently open.

According to the report, permit revenues have more than doubled at the 32 remaining pools, with an estimated value of more than $1 million in 2009-2010.

The complete report can be found at www.torontolandscorp.ca.