Construction of the new community pool has been delayed due to a permitting issue but developers are still saying it will be ready for swimmers in time for Canada’s 150th birthday.

Western Recreation, the company rebuilding the community pool, failed to submit engineered electrical drawings in its building permit submission package and was denied a building permit by the municipal Safety Codes Officer, said Lyle Hannan, director of Community Services, at a council meeting on Sept. 20.

Hannan told council that Western has not been on site since the old pool’s demolition and decommissioning was completed September 12. He said this was a minor delay and that the pool is still scheduled to open July 1, 2017 but he didn’t know when construction would resume.

“It really depends on how much back and forth there is between the SCO and the contractor in terms of the completion of the documentation,” he said. “At this point, Western Recreation has not expressed any concerns with the overall project timelines though everyone is anxious to see construction commence.”

Brett Dyregrov, project manager with Western Recreation, said his company had found an electrical engineering consultant to prepare the electrical drawings. He said the electrical drawings were submitted Sept. 23 and that he was waiting for a building permit.

Dyregrov said engineered electrical drawings are not always required as part of a building permit application package, which is why they were not submitted. He also said electrical work is “outside of the pool contractor’s scope of work for the project.”

“This has caused a delay of approximately ten days from the anticipated construction start date,” said Dyregrov. “That said we have allowed such delays in our project scheduling and there are contingencies in place for these types of unanticipated delays.”

To build the new pool, Western needs to go through a two-part approval process. First, it needs permission from the Alberta Health Services, which it got several months back. Second, it needs a building permit from the municipality.

Patrick Thomas, director of Planning, Engineering and Operations, said Western would need to include plans related to the pool’s electrical, plumbing, structural, architectural and landscaping needs to get a permit.

Brad Murray, municipal project manager, explained that an application is reviewed before a company is granted a building permit. It is not unusual for a submission package to have deficiencies.

“There are lots of permits involved in building anything,” he said. “You can’t work on a building until you have a building permit.”

Despite the delay, the pool’s panel system is scheduled for delivery the first week in October, waterslide and other toy feature colours are being chosen. Dyregrov said Western Recreation’s workers have taken up residence in Coleman and look forward to spending the next nine months living and working in the Pass.