Winnipeg school trustee pushes for water safety program

by jason_cramp | October 12, 2016 4:50 pm

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After the drowning death of two Winnipeg School Division students this summer, one school board trustee is lobbying for a swim safety program to help reduce water-related deaths.

According to a CTV Winnipeg News report, Trustee Mark Wasyliw, drawing from the Toronto District School Board’s Swim to Survive program[2], which was developed by the Lifesaving Society of Canada, said the water safety course would focus on those new to the country as well as indigenous Canadians, but would be offered to all students.

“It’s not a swim course it’s a survival, life skills course,” said Wasyliw in the report. “We would be targeting the entire division, but we have two groups that are in the high-risk category for drowning and that’s newcomers and indigenous Canadians. We want to make sure our students have a basic level of survival skills when it comes to water.”

Wasyliw’s idea is backed by Lifesaving Society CEO, Carl Shier, who said the program is different from swimming lessons.

“This is something every child should have,” said Shier. “This is something that’s a reality in a water-rich province like Manitoba.

“The Drowning Prevention Research Centre takes all the statistics across Canada and they’ve identified new Canadians are the highest at-risk group,” he said. “They’re now living in a place where there’s going to be water and it doesn’t have to be in lakes it’s often in backyard pools.”

The Swim to Survive program is already taught to children in some First Nations communities in northern Manitoba and Shier believes it can easily be replicated for grade 3 or 4 students in Winnipeg. Costs to run the program are unknown; however, getting city approval would mean its public pools could be used.

The courses would be inexpensive to run; the division could provide transportation and the Lifesaving Society offers the training free of charge, said Wasyliw, who wants to make the Swim to Survive program available to all students by the 2017-18 school year.

Source URL: https://www.poolspamarketing.com/trade/winnipeg-school-trustee-pushes-for-water-safety-program/

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