Does Port Moody have an indoor pool?+
No. Port Moody has two pools, Rocky Point Pool and Westhill Pool, and both are outdoor and summer only. The City's Recreation Facilities Study, endorsed by Council on May 12, 2026, counts indoor aquatic facilities at zero and outdoor at two. The Recreation Complex at 300 Ioco Road, the City's main recreation building, has a weight room, two gymnasiums, two arenas, a curling centre, a hot tub and a steam room, but no pool. That single fact shapes almost everything else about aquatic work here: the City's lesson programme runs in summer, its aquatic staff are hired for summer, and every certification course a Port Moody resident takes happens in a neighbouring municipality. The Study recommends building a 40,000 to 65,000 square foot indoor facility at the Recreation Complex and ranks indoor aquatics as the City's top amenity priority, but no funding or timeline is attached to that recommendation.
How long is the swim season in Port Moody?+
About eleven weeks. Port Moody's pools opened June 16 and closed August 31 in 2025, and the 2026 season closes September 6. Public swims run daily in two blocks, roughly 1pm to 5pm and 6pm to 8pm, at $2 per person per session. For a swim instructor, the number that matters is the other side of it: for roughly forty-one weeks of the year there is no municipal aquatic work in Port Moody, because there is no open municipal pool. Every neighbouring city named in Port Moody's own comparisons, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Burnaby and Vancouver, employs aquatic staff year round in indoor facilities. Teaching on Propel runs year round in Port Moody itself, in partner pools, on a schedule you set.
How much do swim instructors make in Port Moody?+
The City of Port Moody's published entry rate for aquatic work is $27.63/hr, the Aquatic Leader I band in Schedule "A-1" of the CUPE 825 Outside collective agreement. Two things to know about that number. It is the final year of an agreement that expired on 2024-12-31, and as of 2026-08-31 no successor agreement had been published, so a settled successor would likely be higher. And it is a single flat rate for the band rather than a range with steps inside it, so moving up means moving to Aquatic Leader II at $28.66/hr or Aquatic Leader III at $33.24/hr on those same 2024 figures. On Propel you set your own rate, and instructors took home an average of $52/hr in 2025. That is a measured average across all experience levels rather than a starting rate, and actual earnings vary with your price, availability, location, season, and demand.
Where do you take swim instructor certification if you live in Port Moody?+
Not in Port Moody. No Lifesaving Society course appeared at any Port Moody facility across the Swim Instructor, National Lifeguard Pool, Bronze Cross and Bronze Medallion calendars retrieved on 2026-08-31, which follows from there being no indoor pool to run them in. The nearest options are Poirier Sport and Leisure Complex in Coquitlam and Hyde Creek Pool in Port Coquitlam. On listings retrieved that day, Bronze Medallion was $170.00 and Swim Instructor $303.00 at Poirier, Bronze Cross $175.00 and National Lifeguard Pool $450.00 at Hyde Creek. The cheapest observed full stack came to $1,098.00, before tax, before the Lifesaving Society candidate fee, and before Standard First Aid with CPR-C, which is a separate purchase. Prices vary by provider, so treat these as one snapshot rather than a standard price list.
Do you need to be a lifeguard to teach swimming in Port Moody?+
Not to teach on Propel. Propel asks for a recognized swim instructor certification, most commonly the Lifesaving Society Swim Instructor award, plus about a year of paid teaching experience, because you teach private lessons rather than guard a public pool. What the City of Port Moody requires is not published. The City has no standing aquatic job description, and no Aquatic Leader posting was retrievable as of 2026-08-31, so its exact certification list cannot be stated. What the collective agreement does show is a single ladder, Aquatic Leader I, II and III, with no separate lifeguard and instructor classifications. That is suggestive of a combined role but is not confirmation of one, and the agreement defines no duties.
When does Port Moody hire aquatic staff?+
Once a year, ahead of a season that starts in mid-June. Summer 2026 lesson registration opened May 5 for residents and May 7 for non-residents, and staffing has to be settled before registration opens, which puts the practical window in late winter and early spring. Applications run through the City's careers portal, reachable from portmoody.ca, where you build a career profile and can set a Career Alert for future postings. The job categories include a combined "Clerical Admin/ Auxiliary Pool" listing. As of 2026-08-31 the board carried ten postings and none of them aquatic, consistent with a season that had just closed. If you are looking to teach now rather than next June, that gap is the reason to look at other paths.
Which union covers aquatic staff in Port Moody?+
CUPE Local 825, and specifically its Outside agreement. The local holds three separate agreements with the City, Inside, Outside, and Police (Civilian), and the aquatic classifications appear only in the Outside one. Its recognition clause covers hourly employees in street, water, sewer, parks, recreation maintenance and general maintenance work, so aquatic staff bargain alongside public works crews rather than with community-centre and city-hall staff. That is unusual: Vancouver splits its aquatic workforce between two locals by venue, indoor and outdoor. Port Moody has no indoor venue to split. The Outside agreement's term ran 2022-01-01 to 2024-12-31 and had not been replaced by any published successor as of 2026-08-31, so its rates are the most recent published figures rather than current confirmed ones.
Can you teach private swim lessons at Port Moody's public pools?+
The City has not published an answer. Its pool rules cover supervision ratios, pre-entry hygiene, in-water conduct and when to notify a lifeguard, and say nothing about instruction, coaching, lessons, or commercial activity. Its Patron Code of Conduct, Administrative Policy A07-2640-2025-01, is the same, with a single line about refraining from soliciting that addresses canvassing rather than paid teaching. The City also publishes no employee conflict-of-interest or outside-work policy. So Port Moody neither permits nor prohibits it in writing, which is a thin basis on which to build a practice. Teaching on Propel removes the question: you teach in partner pools with permission already in place, Propel handles bookings, payments, and up to $10,000,000 of insurance, and you keep your own clients.
Is Port Moody building an indoor pool?+
An indoor pool is the City's top-ranked amenity priority in a Council-endorsed plan, which is not the same as a funded build. On May 12, 2026 Council endorsed the Recreation Facilities Study, a twenty-five year planning document that scores indoor aquatics first out of twenty-three amenity types and recommends a 40,000 to 65,000 square foot indoor facility at the Recreation Complex. No funding, timeline, or construction decision is attached. The same recommendation contemplates decommissioning one outdoor pool once an indoor facility comes online, and reasons that Westhill would be the one to sustain, which points at Rocky Point as the candidate. Rocky Point Pool is separately described in the 2024 Rocky Point Park Master Plan as nearing the end of its usable life. Whether aquatic staffing grows or shrinks under that plan is not modelled anywhere published.
