There’s a lifeguard shortage and it’s not only affecting London. All across North America, lifeguard positions are being left unfilled.
“That’s because aquatics services programs, lifeguards, they follow a development pathway and that development pathway is always outputting certified lifeguards,” says Jon-Paul McGonigle, London’s director of recreation and sport. “And because that was not able to operate during COVID-19 due to many prolonged closures, there is no outputs anymore.”
Looking to become a lifeguard!? Start your lifeguarding journey by registering for our Summer Leadership courses!#ldnont #londonontario #londonaquatics pic.twitter.com/ZziANeCY8S
— Aquatic Services (@LondonAquatics) May 24, 2022
A report is going forward to city council on Tuesday outlining the issues that the city of London are having filling vacancies.
Training new lifeguards take a long time. According to McGonigle, from start to finish it can take around 200 hours. It’s also a heavily legislated profession underneath the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Health so they’re not easily replaced.
Because of the shortages, the city has been forced to reduce the number of programs offered and limit programs that take a lot of resources.
“We haven’t taken the approach of closing one pool, or closing another pool. We haven’t taken the approach of closing one pool or closing another pool. We have just tried to reduce hours across the board so there is different geographic opportunities for different neighbourhoods to participate on different days of the week,” says McGonigle.
Anyone looking to apply just needs to go to the city of London website.
