Pickleball is surging in popularity across Halton Hills and the local association says the community is nearing a tipping point: secure a year-round facility or keep turning players away.
Marc Surette, president of the Halton Hills Pickleball Association (HHPA), said the goal of the association is to “facilitate the play of pickleball,” as they oversee outdoor courts, lessons, leagues, ladders, clinics, tournaments and round robins for all ages and abilities.
According to Surette, the association has reached “about 700 members” after doubling annually for roughly four years.
“It’s amazing, we’re rivalling some of the bigger city centres,” Surette said. “Every year is a new challenge; we don’t have enough space to accommodate everyone.”
Pat Lewis, the HHPA’s director of operations, said interest has been so strong that they have to limit membership to just Halton Hills residents, as there isn’t enough space to meet demand for those in Erin and Rockwood.
Currently, registration for new HHPA members is open as of April 1 to Halton Hills residents only.
One of the association’s biggest challenges is capacity, both indoor and outdoor. With access to only two outdoor courts — one at Emmerson Park in Georgetown, the other at Prospect Park in Acton — and no dedicated indoor facility in town, the association has been stitching together gym time across multiple sites.
Surette explained that in the fall, winter and spring, they rent school gyms, running sessions from October to late spring. Because schools aren’t available during the day, they also rent courts three times a week at the Milton Sports Centre.
“It’s definitely a challenge,” Surette said of relying on short-term rentals.
To address the shortage, the pickleball association has joined a sports coalition with other local field and court sports organizations around a shared vision: a multi-sport, dome-covered complex in Halton Hills.
“We presented to council last night to try to further an idea to land on a year-round facility,” Jennifer Reynolds, vice-president of the HHPA, explained as she delegated to town council during the May 11 council meeting regarding the town’s recreational facilities road map.
The concept, dubbed the “two-dome solution,” proposed at Eighth Line Park, would include:
- A rectangular artificial turf field under a dome for field sports.
- Courts under the same or a second dome for pickleball and other court sports.
The goal is consistent indoor play in Halton Hills, so residents don’t have to leave town and so organizations can grow without capping registration.
Reynolds said the town has now added the two-dome solution as a third recreation priority to explore in the recreational facilities road map, opening the door to partnerships, grants and private donations.
“Last night’s meeting was a step in the right direction,” Surette said.
Although pickleball initially took off among older adults, local programs increasingly focus on youth and inclusion.
Surette said the association ran two weeks of lessons at Joseph Gibbons Public School for students in Grades 1 to 5. Reynolds added that some schools now include pickleball in their gym curriculum.
The association’s youth program has about 20 children signed up, many of them children or grandchildren of members.
The association has also partnered with Special Olympics, offering a weekly program during the summer at Prospect Park in Acton. From a trial with about 25 athletes, Surette said, participation is expected to grow to “around 40 athletes” this summer.
The association’s annual Serve It Up charity pickleball tournament has quickly become a community fixture.
Surette said in the past two years, it has raised about $6,000 for the Georgetown Hospital Foundation and $11,000 plus 400 pounds of food for the Georgetown Bread Basket and Acton Foodshare.
With 75 teams registered this year, Surette said, the association hopes to push total fundraising near $30,000 over the three-year period.
Looking ahead, Surette imagines a home base similar to the Halton Hills Tennis Club, with multiple courts and a clubhouse, potentially under a dome.
“If we had something like that, I could see us hitting 1,000 members and not really having to worry about space,” he said.
By Christian Collington, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on May 13, 2026 at 06:47
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