City of Saskatoon looking at indoor playgrounds in leisure centres

A report submitted to the City of Saskatoon's planning committee is exploring the idea of incorporating more indoor playgrounds into the city's leisure centres.

The report, authored by Jody Hauta, manager of recreational facilities and programs, was requested by Coun. Randy Donauer during a city council meeting in January.

"The intent of the report that we provided today was to give council some background information on the opportunities that are available through our existing facilities, as well as opportunities that are available in the private industry in Saskatoon," Hauta said.

Three city-owned leisure facilities - Lakewood Civic Centre, Shaw Centre and Lawson Civic Centre - currently offer indoor playgrounds which feature small play structures and a variety of toys. There's also some toys, such as magnetic tables, that are geared to learning and socializing with other children.

"There's also some equipment that would be applicable to very young infants, such as a playpen, or high chairs and strollers and bouncers and those sorts of things," Hauta said.

Strong support for more indoor playgrounds

According to the City of Saskatoon Recreation and Parks Master Plan that came into effectlast year, 88 per cent of groups surveyed said that new indoor playgrounds should be developed. In addition, 73 per cent of households said that "new or enhanced indoor playgrounds should be a future focus."

Hauta saidfinding space for the playgrounds will be a challenge. Finding money to fund such ventures could also be an issue, as the recreation and parks master plan characterized indoor playgrounds as "potential capital projects between 2016 and 2026 with an estimated capital cost of $50,000 to $100,000, for the development of a small-scale indoor playground."

"At this stage, there's no funding in our current budgets to allow us to proceed with developing an indoor playground, but that's something we will look to in future capital budgets," Hauta said. "We'll look at our priorities to see where this fits in terms of a project for the future."