The head contractor overseeing repairs at the Gungahlin Leisure Centre's 50-metre pool has applied for exemptions for Sydney workers, after the Covid outbreak forced the repair work to grind to a halt.
This could potentiallymean the pool will be closed for two years, as the government said the delay had pushed back the pool's planned reopening, which was expected before the end of the year.
Tiling contractors from Sydney have been working on the pool's $1.5 million repairs. All tiles in the pool will be removed and replaced as part of the works.
Liberal member for Yerrabi Leanne Castley questioned, on Wednesday, if Sports Minister Yvette Berry had sought an exemption for the workers and whether local businesses had been offered the job.
"Leading to the budget later this month, the Chief Minister has continually spoken about creating local jobs," Ms Castley said.
"Surely this is a missed opportunity to support local workers and businesses.
"The minister must be upfront and tell the community how many Canberra companies were on the preferred tiling contractor list and why one of those could not do the job."
An ACT government spokeswoman said the contractor had applied for exemptions for the Sydney contractors.
She said the government wanted to start the tile installation as soon as possible, but the first priority was to keep Canberrans safe from Covid.
The ACT government signed a contract with Canberra construction firm Kynetic to fix the pool in March.
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However, the spokeswoman said a specialist commercial aquatic contractor was needed to repair the tiles. She said no Canberra businesses applied for this.
"A public procurement process was held to engage a tiling contractor to fix the 50-metre pool," the spokeswoman said.
"The government did not receive any submissions from local Canberra tiling contractors through the procurement process."
The pool was only built in 2014, as part of the $28.7 million facility but problems started to emerge in June last year, when tiles began falling off.
The pool has been closed since March 2020, as it was first closed due to the Covid lockdown.
Neither the government or the pool's builder could determine the reason for the problem tiles. The government accepted a $400,000 payout to cut ties with the pool's original builder.
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