Surrey urged to get more creative to meet demand for swim lessons as pandemic restrictions ease

When Ravi Gill sat down to register her two daughters for summer swimming lessons, she expected it to be relatively straightforward.

But it wasn't.

Gill tried to log into the City of Surrey's online portal to nab the perfect classes but never got into the system. 

"Finally, I just gave up because the login just kept swirling."

Gill is one of many Surrey parents who have been left frustrated trying to enrol their kids in swimming classes, as the city struggles with demand amid the easing of pandemic restrictions — and pandemic-related lifeguard and swim instructor shortages. 

According to City of Surrey's estimates, 2023 will see demand for about 30,000 swim lessons, a 270 per cent increase from last year. 

In 2019, just before the pandemic, the city saw 51,344 registrants for swim lessons.

It's the same issue other municipalities across Canada are facing — a shortage of swim instructors and lifeguards, the result of a ripple effect from COVID-19. 

Mark Smeets, a trained swimming instructor with the Canucks Autism Network, says he is willing to be a city swimming instructor but has been unsuccessful because he doesn't want to be certified as a lifeguard. 

"The cities are also trying to solve the lifeguarding issue as well, not just the lack of instructors," said Smeets. 

Kimiko Hirakida, an education manager with the B.C. Lifesaving Society, echoes Smeets' sentiments but says the opposite is true as well. 

"Not everybody wants to be a swimming instructor when they want to be a lifeguard."

The city, however, says it has no plans to split up the job. It says it ran a pilot with the same idea early in 2022, but almost everyone who applied had both certifications.

Hirakida points to other B.C. municipalities like West Vancouver and the City of Trail, which have been offering free lifeguard training to attract more swim instructors.

"The City of Delta is paying for their staff to be re-certified, the City of West Vancouver was doing something really cool where they were offering all of their courses essentially for free if you get hired there."

While the city says it does not have plans to offer any incentives, it is working with the Surrey School District and the Surrey Wraparound Program to place 16 youths in lifeguard training this year. 

The city also says its Leisure Access Program, which allows low-income individuals to access city facilities like fitness classes, gyms, swimming and skating activities at a heavily discounted rate, was expanded to offer lifeguard and swimming courses.

Pool expansion running into budget issues

Due to the shortage of lifeguards and swimming instructors, the city's website shows only three of its five pools are fully operational right now.

While a new 10-lane, 50-metre lap pool is scheduled to be built in Newton by 2024, Coun. Linda Annis says the city is not making the best use of its existing facilities due to a lack of staff.

The Surrey Sport and Leisure Complex is closed until May 2023 for scheduled maintenance, while the South Surrey Indoor Pool is only operating Monday to Thursday, which the city says is due to the ongoing lifeguard shortage. 

"In the past five years, we've had over 50,000 people move to the City of Surrey. We're not keeping up with the infrastructure, specifically pools," said Annis. 

Surrey Mayor Brenda Locke says the city could be looking at building another pool.

"The new pool in Whalley is one that we're hoping to build at the Chuck Bailey as part of the second phase of the Bailey expansion," she said in reference to the Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre expansion.

Though Locke says due to the ongoing policing uncertainty in Surrey, the city is unable to promise any funds for new infrastructure projects at this time. 

"Surrey is absolutely challenged with our budget right now, especially in light of the police transition," added Locke. 

Annis disagrees. 

"We need to be focusing on providing core services to our residents here in Surrey," she said.

Gill also says she feels like city services are being neglected. 

"For a growing city and the level of funding that is coming in from all the development that has gone on, it's a shame that it's being put into aspects that are not the priority for the average working family."

Gill has since opted to pay a private company to teach her daughters swimming, with a price tag of $3,000 a year. 

But it has come at the cost of other activities. 

"We've decided to cut down on other activities that the kids wanted. They wanted to do art classes, and they wanted to do soccer. We've said no, let's just focus on one that we can pay for right now."