Canadian's enjoy swimming as one of their top 5 favoured leisure and sport activities. Our country is surrounded by waterways and we care as a population about being safe in and around water. Swimming is one activity that can be enjoyed by all ages and abilities as water buoyancy creates a level playing field for swimmers with physical limitations. The benefits of swimming on individuals and communities are significant as pools provide gathering places for social interaction and cohesion for neighbourhoods and a wide choice of aquatic activity that builds skills and confidence in individuals. Participating in aquatic sports is very popular and enjoyed by Canadians and as with any sport, adequate infrastructure has everything to do with promoting a choice of sport activities, providing opportunities to learn and develop and accommodate growing participation rates.

Most municipalities prioritize lessons, public swim and pools rentals to be the core "businesses" of swimming pools. While aquatic sport is considered a rental by many; there is a case to be made for the importance of aquatic sport in the continuum of aquatic activities; there is also a clear case to be made for a mixture of pools types to meet a myriad of aquatic needs within a community or a region.

In Ontario, there are over 234 Class A swimming pools (designation of pool types) owned and operated by municipalities and 55 owned and operated by YMCAs and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada according to work completed by the JF Group (a renowned recreation and sport consulting firm in Ontario) for Parks and Recreation Ontario. The same study found that over $625M was needed to refurbish or renovate the existing municipal pool supply in Ontario, it should be noted that this was not replacement costs but repair and refurbishment costs only and that additional pools have been constructed and are being constructed since that time. The recent announcement of infrastructure funding jointly shared and funded between the three levels of government has addressed only a portion of this shortfall (under study). The point is that there may be opportunities to refurbish and re-construct the municipal supply at a minimum to be both sport friendly and meet the leisure needs of Ontarians. As discussed, this is the main point of this document; the Aquatic Sport Council in Ontario has set about to build the case for a mix of pool types within municipalities or regions in order for all aquatic activities and aquatic sports to better develop and flourish. Consideration should be given to aquatic sport requirements when pools are being refurbished or new ones are being constructed.