Lifeguard staff levels improving in some Lower Mainland municipalities amid shortage

As cities across the Lower Mainland recruit new lifeguards amid a staffing crunch, two popular Vancouver beaches went unguarded over the weekend.

In a tweet Sunday, the Vancouver Park Board warned visitors to Spanish Banks West and Sunset Beach to take care while recreating in the water.

Vancouver Park Board aquatics supervisor Tony Syskakis said the city's 120 outdoor lifeguards are first deployed to popular locations like Kitsilano Pool, New Brighton Pool, and Second Beach to meet minimum staffing levels there.

If those levels are met, staff are deployed to other, less busy areas.

Syskakis said the 120 outdoor lifeguards and 350 indoor lifeguards currently employed are enough to fully staff Vancouver's aquatic systems if all of those staff members had "a certain amount of availability."

"The reality is many of them have other jobs or are still in school or many other factors. So their availability fluctuates in order to meet the operational requirements."

Syskakis said the park board hopes to hire another 50-60 lifeguards by the end of June or early July to meet daily requirements.

Cities actively recruiting new staff

The lifeguard shortage isn't confined to Vancouver, and Lower Mainland municipalities are also in recruiting mode.

The City of New Westminster began a pilot program in March to recruit new lifeguards, training them at no cost if they face financial barriers and have committed to a certain amount of availability over a two-year period.

While the pandemic put a wrench in courses that would often attract high schoolers or recent grads, recreation services manager Stephanie Trasolini said the program is now enticing a different demographic to enter aquatics.

"We have, for example, an applicant who is from South Korea who was a swim coach, newer to Canada. We have a lifeguard who used to be a lifeguard back in the 80s, who is just looking to get back into some work," Trasolini said.

"We've got a university student who has to pay their way through school, and they don't have any aquatic background, but they thought it to be a great opportunity, and they were just looking forward to getting some certifications and training under their belts at their age."

Trasolini said altogether, there's been an increase of lifeguards on staff at the city from about 30 to 55 since last summer.

The District of West Vancouver, meanwhile, said it's working to hire new lifeguards every six weeks and ran an extra training course this year.

A spokesperson said the district has managed to double its lifeguard staff to approximately 65 since last year and re-up its pool hours to seven days a week.

Work-life balance

At the B.C. branch of the Lifesaving Society, training courses are getting more enrolment again.

"We actually trained a higher number of lifeguards than we did in 2019, which was pre-pandemic," said program manager for swimming and life-saving Kimiko Hirakida.

"So there are trained lifeguards out there. It's just a matter of our affiliates and cities matching the availability that they need."

Hirakida said part of that lies in being more flexible with a new crop of staff to make lifeguarding more appealing to younger and older crowds alike.

"When I was a young lifeguard, I was happy to work four days a week and not have as much of a social life. But the new generation is happier to work one or two shifts a week, and affiliates at different pools need to recognize that and program a little bit differently to maintain those staff," she said.

"… As well as if we have any parents returning to the workforce after having children and just looking for a different, more flexible job."