Hamilton’s outdoor pools set to open June 30 — on time and fully staffed — amid a national lifeguard shortage

With school winding down and the weather warming up, Hamilton's outdoor pools are set to reopen next week, unaffected by a lifeguard shortage plaguing other Ontario cities.

As of Friday, the city had hired enough staff to support the current summer programs scheduled." This includes outdoor and wading pools, Camp Kidaca, Supie - the city's drop-in recreation programs - and free fitness programs.

This includes filling 88 per cent of its typical 240 part-time summer lifeguards, Laura Kerr, manager of program development in the city's recreation department, said in an email Friday.

A lifeguard shortage has emerged in the wake of the pandemic, forcing cities like Toronto to cancel swim programs and trim supervised beach hours.

Hamilton's recreation operations manager Julie Matson said the city anticipated challenges" in hiring summer staff and opened a second recruitment period in the spring.

While this did successfully assist in acquiring additional qualified hires, our workforce and programming are still not fully recovered to pre-pandemic levels," she said.

While drop-in aquatics, such as open and length swim and water fitness, are operating at 100 per cent capacity, registered swim programs have taken a hit.

The city is offering just 65 per cent of its swim-lesson programming compared to pre-pandemic levels - up from 58 per cent in the spring - meaning there are about 400 fewer programs and courses than in a typical summer.

Lessons are 80 per cent full, the highest demand for early-childhood swim programs.

Meanwhile, the YMCA of Hamilton-Burlington-Brantford (HBB) is still looking to hire 75 full- and part-time lifeguards. Typically, the local branch of the organization would hire between 160 and 180 lifeguards, depending on demand," said spokesperson Kyla Kumar.

This was a challenge that already existed pre-pandemic," she told The Spectator. It's been really exacerbated by the pandemic."

The YMCA is running between 50 to 75 per cent of its swim lessons, depending on the branch. Kumar said the goal is to increase capacity as they hire more staff.

On its website, Wild Waterworks said the water park will be adjusting its operations this year" due to staff shortages, opening only from Wednesday to Sunday.

The pandemic has meant two years of very little lifeguard training and expiring certifications," said Sara Kinnear, manager of Wild Waterworks, said in the statement. Lifeguards are in short supply to start the summer, impacting many facilities."

The park opens on Wednesday.

YMCA lifeguards make between $15 and $18 an hour, depending on the position and shift. The starting hourly wage for a city lifeguard is about $26 - almost $10 more than a lifeguard in Toronto.

Kumar said the primary demographic" for lifeguarding is students, meaning it's a sector with high turnover.

The pandemic affected the pipeline of lifeguards as certification programs were cancelled, delaying one or more cohorts of new lifeguards.

Now, the city and the YMCA are expanding certification programming to try and get more guards in chairs.

Kumar said pre-pandemic, the YMCA would host seasonal certification in the fall and winter. For at least the next year," they plan to run them year round.

We have had extremely high demand for these programs; and all have been full," she said.

The city offered nine 40-hour National Lifeguard certification courses between February and June - up from about five pre-pandemic - as well as seven instruction training programs.

This increase allowed us to increase training spaces by 112 candidates for both programs combined," Kerr said.

Nine outdoor pools across the city are scheduled to reopen on June 30. The Parkdale pool, part of an east-end recreation centre under construction, will reopen later in the summer.

Kate McCullough is an education reporter at The Spectator. kmccullough@thespec.com