Victoria, Esquimalt enter contest for swimming dock funding

Swimmers in Greater Victoria may have new docks to swim from in the next few years.

The City of Victoria, and neighbouring Esquimalt Township, are applying for the WAVE prize — a grant that would cover up to 80 per cent of the costs of swimming infrastructure around natural bodies of water.

Both municipalities would use the funding to add docks on their respective sections of the Gorge Waterway — a warm, narrow channel off Victoria’s Inner Harbour that is a popular place to swim in the summer, and is even used by some swimmers year-round.

There is already one dock along the waterway, at Victoria's Banfield Park, that's so popular that city councillors agree there’s an appetite for more — and residents of Esquimalt have been asking their council to get one built too.

“We've heard strongly that we'd like to have our own here in the township,” said Robbie Young, parks manager for Esquimalt.

The township has already begun planning to build a series of docks, starting with one in the popular Esquimalt Gorge Park — which has a new public building, with washrooms and a large parking lot.

While details for the project aren’t fully sorted, Young said there would likely be a gangway leading from the land to a small floating dock.

He said having a chunk of the costs covered would be a huge help.

The WAVE prize was announced in November. It's coordinated by a Canadian non-profit organization called Swim Drink Fish, which works to protect water and connect people to it, with financial help from the Weston family.

Swim Drink Fish is offering up to five grants of $3 million to $15 million to local government and First Nations in B.C., with a goal of helping to increase public swimming access to natural water in urban areas.

Separate from the prize, the non-profit is also helping to fund the construction of a floating swimming platform in North Vancouver, with a donation from the Weston family.

In Victoria, there weren’t any active plans to add more docks, but when Coun. Krista Loughton heard about the WAVE prize she figured that needed to change.

She convinced her fellow councillors to authorize staff to look at the viability of the prize, a project it would fund, and whether other funding might be available, and staff quickly came back with ideas.

They’ve suggested two possible locations — and say there are interested community donors to cover the additional costs for both.

The prize money would either be used to add more capacity at Banfield Park or to create a brand new dock on the other side of the Gorge at Cecelia Cove Park, a small area of shoreline at the foot of the Selkirk Trestle.

Loughton told CBC News she believes people are more likely to take care of the environment if they can enjoy it, so getting more people to the water can help protect it.

Plus, she added, it’s fun.

“It's really, really good for people to have access to something that just brings them joy and happiness,” said Loughton.

The deadline to apply for the prize is Jan. 30, 2026.

According to Swim Drink Fish, winners will be announced “on a rolling basis” throughout the year.