Chris Lowrey
FORT COULONGE June 20, 2017
The MRC Pontiac has thrown its support behind an initiative spearheaded by local entrepreneur Jane Toller to bring a public pool to Fort Coulonge.
The proposal was made at the MRC council meeting on June 20.
The council granted its support in principle to the project to construct an interior aquatic centre – complete with a 25 metre-long swimming pool with six lanes. The centre would also include other amenities like a therapeutic pool and a hot tub.

“I believe the Pontiac deserves an indoor swimming pool,” Toller said.
She said the main motivation behind the project is to give seniors in the area an outlet for low-impact physical activity, which could help reduce health problems in the population.
“This is going to go a long way for health and wellness in the Pontiac,” she said.
A 2010 study commissioned by the CLD, which was requested by the Pontiac Pool Committee, tapped Campbell’s Bay, Shawville or Fort Coulonge as the ideal sites for the municipal pool.
The Pontiac Pool Committee is comprised of several Pontiac organizations such as school boards, schools, municipalities and the MRC.
But Toller, who owns the Spruceholme Inn and the Pontiac Conference Centre in Fort Coulonge, said the previous attempt to bring a municipal swimming pool to the Pontiac was derailed by arguments over where the pool should go.
“What happened, as I understand it, was that when it came down to final votes to move ahead there was an argument about where it should be located,” Toller said. “It was an issue between two school boards.”
Toller said that locating a pool on school board property presents several challenges.
“If you locate a pool on school property, the disadvantage is that schools are typically closed for the summer and they’re closed on weekends,” she said. “We need this facility to be available seven days a week.”
Toller hopes that the pool will be located in Fort Coulonge and the unanimous council vote has her confident that will be the case.
She gave three main reasons why the pool should be located in Fort Coulonge. Toller pointed to the fact that Fort Coulonge is relatively central when it comes to the geography of the Pontiac in general; she also said that 26 per cent of the Pontiac’s population lives in Mansfield-Fort Coulonge; Toller also said that recent economic studies have found that Fort Coulonge is one of the major municipalities in the MRC that is in need of revitalization.
“It’s time for some revitalization,” Toller said.
Toller hopes that the provincial and federal governments will contribute five-sixths of the projects funding.
She hopes the federal government can contribute half the cost of the project through both the Building Canada Fund and the Communities Built for Change Fund.
Both funds are geared towards rural populations and social infrastructure, so Toller said she’s hopeful to secure the funding.
The remaining one-fifth of the funding would come from the MRC and local businesses.
Ideally, Toller would like to see the pool connected to the arena in Fort Coulonge. She said that the shower facilities offered by the pool could be used by those who currently use the gym on-site but have no options for showering after a workout.
Toller says that most pools, regardless of how well they’re run, rarely break even. As such, she wants to make sure that every available hour is used up with things like birthday parties or synchronized swimming, on top of regular programming.
She also said that the pool would bear the name of the Pontiac and not Fort Coulonge.
“I feel really optimistic that this will be a reality,” Toller said.
The financial plan for the municipal pool will be presented to council by Toller in August, with the hope that construction can start in September of 2018.