The PPRA grew out of the community’s anger when the City of Ottawa suddenly (in the middle of the process of having developed working drawings and hiring architects) reneged on its commitment to rebuild the condemned and closed old Plant Bath due to municipal budget austerities of the mid 1990’s.
The creation of the PPRA was part of a means of channeling and expanding a huge community effort, determined not to give up year after year and through the amalgamation of the new city, until almost a decade later the new facility was opened in 2004.
In addition to advocacy for a new facility, the PPRA was involved in running recreation programs from its inception. As part of its advocacy strategy (to convince municipal government of the seriousness of its commitment to recreation in the neighbourhood) it ran programs in Plouffe Park without waiting for the arrival of a recreation facility. It started summer park programs for children and youth, soccer and skating for girls and women, soccer for children, and took over the operation of the rink from the Dalhousie Community Association.
The PPRA also used these programs as a strategy for visibility in the community, to interest more people in supporting the work of the PPRA in advocating for the new pool.
Following the opening of the Centre in 2004, the PPRA determined there were still valid reasons to continue with its core programs and to expand its advocacy to more recreational opportunities within the broader neighbourhood around Plant Pool. Increasingly as the City works through new periods of austerity and cuts to recreation budgets, the focus of the PPRA’s advocacy work has turned to maintaining existing levels of programming activities and finding new partners to expand recreation in our growing and changing community.