Councillor pushes for review in wake of city website crash

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This article was published 30/08/2022 (750 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A city councillor is calling for a full review after a third-party online booking system crashed, leaving thousands of Winnipeggers treading water while trying to book children’s swim lessons.

Coun. Sherri Rollins, chairwoman of the civic protection and parks committee, which oversees the Leisure Guide’s online booking system, said Wednesday she will put forward a motion for the review at next week’s committee meeting.

“People took time off work to get their kids in swimming lessons,” Rollins said. “It was a tough day (Tuesday). Winnipeggers need to know what happened.”

On Tuesday, the first day of booking fall session swimming and skating lessons, as well as other activities run by the City of Winnipeg, the website crashed just as it opened at 8 a.m.

A later statement by the city said the company which operates the website, Texas-based Active Network, had a technical problem which affected not just Winnipeg but other communities it also serves.

Numerous Winnipeg parents vented on social media, saying they were upset because they had taken time off work in an effort to ensure a booking. Others later said there was now a problem with the website not taking credit card information for payment.

Rollins noted, despite the issues, about 12,000 spots were eventually booked after the website was back online at noon. (That number also includes bookings taken by 311 operators and in person at indoor swimming pools.)

“To me, that’s incredible,” she said. “That’s almost 2,000 more than the previous year, but this was all in one day.”

Because the city pays the company a percentage on each booking, until the website was back up, it wasn’t being paid anything, she added.

“They really had an incentive to get back up and running,” Rollins said, adding she will ask civic administration if the U.S. company is subject to a penalty because of the hours the site was down.

A city spokesman said Wednesday details of how much the company receives from the city and what, if any, penalty clause exists is restricted from being released publicly because of its contract.

The spokesman said the city is already investigating, along with the company, for the cause of the credit card problem.

Meantime, Rollins highlighted another problem: there aren’t enough lesson spots available for children.

She said there are fewer lessons taught because pools are closed for maintenance (such as Cindy Klassen Recreation Centre), as well as fewer lifeguards and instructors due to labour shortages.

“We have a tightened labour market, and we only have four to five years we have young people who want to be lifeguards before going on to their adult jobs. Like any other sector affected, we have challenges there,” Rollins said.

For parents like Darren Firman and Hilary Moffatt (who each attempted to get their respective two sons into swim lessons), the city suddenly opening the booking site at noon with little notice added insult to injury.

Firman tried in vain for more than an hour, both online and by calling 311. He said a 311 operator told him the city wouldn’t be reopening the booking site until Wednesday morning.

“So I went about my day,” Firman said. “Hours later, my wife called and said they opened it. Of course, when I looked, the few courses they had which worked with our schedule were full.”

Firman said he doesn’t understand why the city didn’t send out an email saying when bookings would resume. “I get emails saying the Leisure Guide dates are coming, so I assumed there would be an email saying there were technical difficulties and will be up tomorrow or next week.”

Moffatt was a bit luckier.

“The site just kept loading and loading and nothing was happening,” she said. “It was very infuriating… I saw somebody write that 311 told them there would be a new registration date, so we went out… I (later) saw someone write it was opening at noon and it was 11:35 (a.m.).”

Tapping into the Wi-Fi while in a Walmart aisle, she was able to secure a spot for her six-year-old son but not her four-year-old.

“I looked later and found the city only carried (the noon announcement) on Facebook and Twitter. They didn’t do a lot of advertising to fix their mistake.”

Rollins said it was an “administrative call” to restart the bookings at noon.

Lifesaving Society of Manitoba water smart and safety management co-ordinator Christopher Love said said he couldn’t comment about the website problems, but it is important for children to get swimming lessons.

However, Love said, the city does face issues with aging swimming facilities and a lack of lifeguards and instructors — a situation many communities are facing.

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca