Swimmers dropping into the pool to swim a lap or two will be out of luck a couple of hours or longer on Saturday mornings this fall.

At Monday evening's city council meeting, members defeated a motion that had come forward earlier confirming the city's policy of providing access to the entire community and that at least two lanes of the pool be provided to individual swimmers at all times.

"We do have a little more breathing room," Mike McArthur, treasurer of the club, said outside council chambers last night, following the decision.

For years, the Glacier Bears have had exclusive use of the city's pool (first the downtown pool next to the High Country Inn and now the aquatic centre main pool) from 7 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. It was used as a time when all age groups in the club would swim together.

With individual memberships increasing at the Canada Games Centre, staff at the centre have been moving towards focusing on the individuals' use and had moved towards scheduling in a way that would provide two swim lanes for public access at all times.

The swim club took issue with the new schedule, arguing it would mean cuts to its programming. It also cited the benefits of having all the groups swimming together on Saturday mornings, among other arguments.

Last night, most council members sided with the club.Coun. Dave Austin said he had come to the meeting with mixed feelings on it and wasn't initially to sure how he'd vote. After

listening to Coun. Doug Graham's arguments, he said he was left with little option but to support the swim club.

At 40 weeks, the couple of hours the club is looking for each Saturday morning works out to between 80 and 90 hours a year, representing less than two per cent of the time the pool is open, Graham said. He also suggested most residents aren't looking to go for a swim early Saturday mornings.

"These aren't exactly prime time hours," he said, though he acknowledged there could be a few people who may be inconvenienced.

By comparison, he said, when the 2007 Canada Winter Games were in town, the pool was closed to individual swimmers for a total of three weeks, or 318 hours.

And in 2012, it will once again close for the Arctic Winter Games, with individuals losing an entire two weeks, or 212 hours.

"They lost more in three weeks of Canada Games than they will lose in three years of the Glacier Bears using two hours in the morning on Saturday morning," he said.

"That kind of gives you a perspective of how much time we're talking about."

Graham noted he has yet to hear of anyone complaining he or she can't swim for the two hours on Saturday mornings.

If it's a question of policy, Graham said, he supports the policy that the pool should be open to individual users whenever possible.

"At all possible times, I think it should be open," he said.

The councillor then went on to praise the swim club, pointing to his own experience as a member and as a parent who had two children involved in its programs for kids as young as four to athletes competing at the international level.

"It's wonderful to see the interaction between those young kids and the older ones as well that have accomplished something," he said.

"It's wonderful to see the older kids encouraging (the younger swimmers), and you'll never get another opportunity. Those little ones will never get another opportunity like that. You don't get it in hockey, you don't get it in soccer because you're not all playing together."

Those two hours on Saturday morning are vital for the swim club, he said, adding Whitehorse residents are supportive of the club.

Coun. Florence Roberts also noted her agreement with Graham, saying two hours on a Saturday morning are not a lot ot give up for the club.

"This is where I think we should maintain the status quo," she said.

Along with agreeing with Graham's statements, Austin also informed council he had been called by a father of a seven-year-old. The child wants to join the swim club but was turned down because of the schedule changes that limited class sizes.

If anything, Austin said, the city should remember that while the facility is there for the entire community, there should be some work done on getting the young kids in there to receive some instruction and encouragement to swim.

While Coun. Jeanine Myhre agreed with allowing the swim club to have the Saturday morning slot, she also voiced the need to come up with an overall vision for the centre.

The issue, she said, has been corrupted from a philosophy around public access to a scheduling decision, something that is not within council's mandate.

"It's not our job," she said of scheduling the pool.

Something needs to be brought forward to deal with the vision for the Canada Games Centre, she added.

"Deciding it tonight is just kind of stupid," she later added.

As Coun. Dave Stockdale said though: "You have to be careful with a philosophy."

Like Graham, Stockdale said he agrees with a philosophy that provides public access to the pool whenever possible, but the reality of the matter is different.

Citing a number of examples over the years of when the reality didn't match the overall philosophy, Stockdale argued every situation presents its own issues that have to be looked at individually.

In this case, the general public will still have a lot of time to access the pool when the Canada Games Centre is open, he added.

Though Mayor Bev Buckway did not raise her hand to vote in favour of confirming the policy, she brought forward several concerns in moving against the policy.

This morning, she explained that though she favours sticking to the policy, her attention was on recording the vote when the question was called and she missed raising her hand in support.

"I have concerns about the message we're also sending to our staff because we've been working along one path, we've been asking our staff to work along that path, and then we get some (concerns) from within the community and suddenly we're just willing to say, 'OK, we're going to change that,' " she said, after citing Graham's comments on a separate parking issue that the

city should remain consistent in it's direction.

There's also the question of what it will mean for the city's previous plans for the centre. The city could be taking a step back, she suggested.

While Buckway said she supports the swim club and its efforts, she also said that wasn't the point.

"We're here deciding on an operational matter that we should not be deciding on," she said.

Stockdale proposed an amendment that would have been worded to confirm public access when it's possible. That was defeated in a 3-3 tie vote (whenever a vote is tied, it is defeated). Coun. Jan Stick was absent from the meeting.

The main motion was then defeated.

Art Manhire, the manager of the Games Centre, said today that last night's decision simply means less time available for public swimming.

While he and other staff have been operating on the multiplex master plan, it's council's prerogative to go against that, he said.

While Manhire suspects there will be individuals impacted by the decision, he has yet to hear from them, and it will be up to them to voice those concerns.

The decision won't impact the release of the fall programming schedule for the pool set to come out in late August or early September.

Staff were able to make the schedule change, taking out the Saturday morning lane opportunities this morning before it was sent out to be published, he said.

Meanwhile, the Glacier Bears can now also finalize their plans for fall programming.

"If we did not get that decision, then we would have basically been a closed club, which is what we do not want," McArthur said, noting the club wants to expand and accommodate new swimmers.

McArthur and Glacier Bears president Pat Duncan said they came to the meeting hopeful they would end up with their Saturday morning time slot for the entire pool.

The group had been hoping the city would also keep the entire pool closed to individual lane swimmers from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. through the week to accommodate both its and city programming, but the Saturday morning

time slot was the most important for the group.

"It became the sticky point in the discussions," Duncan told reporters.

While McArthur is happy to have won the battle, he believes the group may not have won the war.

Both he and Duncan said they will be watching and hope to participate in any discussions the city has on the overall vision for the facility.