The competition for low- to minimum-wage employees means there’s a shortage of lifeguards in Collingwood this year, according to a town official, which has led to reduced swim programming this season.
And the problem isn’t just in Collingwood.
Michelle Findlay, manager of recreation services, said the town had to make the decision to pause Sunday programming out of necessity due to the lifeguard shortage, which is affecting municipalities across Ontario.
“It’s really hard for people to get into swim lessons right now,” she said, noting Collingwood has also seen an influx of new residents, making the crunch worse.
“Our wait lists are full within the first few hours of registration. In the past, they maybe wouldn’t fill up for a couple of days after registration opened,” she said. “We’re definitely in a better position now than we were at one point. We’re still not at our full complement of team members.”
The town currently employs 16 lifeguards. Findlay noted this is a dip from past hirings, when she has had as many as 24 people on staff at one time when the Centennial Aquatic Centre had seven-days-per-week coverage.
“We’re not that far off from the 24, but a lot of them aren’t as available as they’re mostly students,” she said.
Another challenge she sees will come this fall, when she’ll be losing about 11 staff as they head off to post-secondary school.
“Then we’ll go back into that shortage in the fall,” she said.
To address the local shortage, the centre is currently closed on Sundays and will be for the foreseeable future. Swim lesson spots have been reduced and private lessons through the town have also been delayed.
“Given that we’re a water community, group lessons give us the opportunity to have eight to 10 people in a session. If we went to private, we had to tie up one instructor for one person, so it wasn’t the most effective way to get people back in classes,” Findlay said, adding she’s hoping to bring private lessons back at some point this summer.
While most of the drop-in programs at the pool haven’t changed as a result of the shortage, the free swim program on Friday nights has been affected on a few occasions when number caps are imposed.
When asked why she thinks there is a shortage of lifeguards this year, Findlay pointed to a few reasons.
“Unfortunately, it’s a tough sell for pay structure. We are very competitive with all of our neighbouring municipalities. However, people are desperately looking for staff,” she said. “We’re competing with Blue Mountain restaurants that are offering $19 per hour for dish-washing jobs. It’s less responsibility but more money.”
In a April, as a way to address the shortage across Ontario, the province proposed amending legislation to lower the age requirement for lifeguards, assistant lifeguards, aquatic instructors or coaches to 15. Previously, the minimum age was 16.
“This change is intended to address staffing shortages and retention issues in the aquatic sector,” states the proposed legislation.
To help address the lifeguard shortage locally, in December 2022, Collingwood council voted to hold the 2023 fees for Bronze Cross and Bronze Medallion/emergency first aid swim lessons to 2022 amounts.
Findlay is hopeful the town will have more qualified applicants join its lifeguard roster, which would mean more classes could open up and the wait list could be reduced.
“We’re working hard. We’re trying to offer as many programs as we want. We know the registration system can be frustrating in how quickly it fills up,” she said. “We’re offering the best we can.”
