City staff are looking into whether a surf machine will cost too much money to keep running.
While the FlowRider machine at the H2O Adventure and Fitness Centre is one-of-a-kind in BC, it'll also need a big chunk of cash to keep running.
Building Services Manager Martin Johansen says last year's costly replacement of the oil seals was only a warmup.
"We're at a point now where the mechanical system - the motor and all the membrane, etc., is at the end of its service life. And we're looking a budget item of around $200,000 to renew the FlowRider and put it back in service," he said.
"The FlowRider is a piece of equipment that is generally utilized by only a small percentage of the people. There may be an opportunity that we could use it for something else."
Johansen says the YMCA, who operates the pool, agreed that the FlowRider as more of a novelty.
"Then, we started looking at what else we could possibly repurpose that space to. So that's what we did last year - we got together with a consultant and we looked at what the options were. And it looks like some kind of a teaching pool may be an option to a FlowRider," he said.
Johansen says the department plans to use a small piece of its annual $50,000 budget to come up with a list of feasible uses for the space.
"The plan is to determine the constructability of it, put the business case together, come back to council, and say 'what do you think we should do with it?' And have you guys give us some direction on that," he said.
"If the direction is (to) change it into a teaching pool to repurpose the space, then we would look to move more into detailed design and determine an exact budget for that project."
Council will make a decision on its fate in 2018.