The McGuinty government has thrown out a financial lifeline to Toronto's school pools, offering up temporary funding so they can reopen this fall.
Almost 40 pools closed earlier this year after the Toronto District School Board said it could no longer afford to keep them open.
Following a public outcry, the board hired former Toronto mayor David Crombie to investigate financial alternatives. Crombie convinced the province to provide four million dollars, but that's only enough to keep the pools open for one more year.
School swimming programs will continue to operate for the next year, which the school board will use to work with the city and the province to find another way to fund the pools.
Many of the pools are open to the general public community during designated hours.
During the next year, operation of the pools will be managed by the Toronto Lands Corporation, which was formed in 2007 and with Crombie as its inaugural chairman.
He has asked the various stakeholders to form a working group to begin developing solutions right away.
The province's minister of education, Kathleen Wynne, says she's confident the groups involved will be able to find a way to keep the pools open in the long term.
"What I want as a citizen of Toronto is I want to see these community assets accessible to community members," she says.
