Bodies of water supervision

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The Lifesaving Society wishes to advise lifeguards in the province of Quebec to comply with the following guidelines regarding their supervision duty.

  1. While supervising a body of water, lifeguards must carry their barrier devices at the waist (pocket mask and gloves).
  2. Upon seeing a motionless person under water a lifeguard should in every case intervene immediately or recover the victim.
  3. The minimum number of lifeguards required as defined in the Regulation respecting safety in public baths (B-1.1, r. 11) must always be respected.
  4. A lifeguard must absolutely abide by the supervision standards described in chapter 2 of Alert! Lifeguarding in Action manual.
  5. Lifeguards must inspect their aquatic facility (premises, equipments, water tests, etc.) before opening to the public as well as after closing time.
  6. When aquatic activities are organized, such as swimming courses, the pool must be supervised by a lifeguard between each activities.

Spring boards and inflatable structures

  1. The aquatic facility must abide by section 26 of the Regulation respecting safety in public baths (B-1.1, r. 11) stating that when an appurtenance installed in a body of water (i.e. inflatable structure) is projecting over the pool and blocks the view of the safety supervisor’s, the number of supervisors must be increased so that the whole pool remains under constant supervision.
  2. Any aquatic facility with a three meters or more spring board should abide by  Coroner Ramsay recommendations. While waiting for these modifications to be added to the Regulation, lifeguards must limit access to the spring board to people over 12 years old and measuring at least 1.35 meter.  The rules in place and a measuring scale must be posted in view of users near the spring boards.
  3. If a person wishes to come down from the spring board using the ladder, the lifeguard must go up the ladder and help the user come down safely.