Residents and businesses in Tofino, B.C., are calling for lifeguards to be reinstated at the area’s popular beaches, and they want the federal government to take the lead in bringing them back.
Surfing instructor Krissy Montgomery said many visitors are coming to Vancouver Island’s west coast to experience the sport at Long Beach, a 16-kilometre stretch of sand south of the town that’s the area’s most popular beach. But she said that can lead to dangerous situations, especially as the area has no lifeguards.
Montgomery recently co-founded the Tofino Surf Lifesaving Club as a way to start filling the gap and presented the effort to a District of Tofino council meeting earlier this week. She told CBC News that the group is starting small by focusing primarily on Cox Bay and on a seasonal basis, but she hopes that it would evolve to have volunteer patrols and then paid lifeguard positions on Long Beach.
“This area needs lifeguards desperately,” she said. “We no longer have to sell this to the public.”
There have been no lifeguards at Long Beach since 2012 when the then-Conservative federal government cut the service that had been running for 40 years.
The beach falls under federal jurisdiction because it is part of the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, which is administered by Parks Canada.
Last year, Montgomery started a federal petition to reinstate the surf guard service and tower on the beach, which attracted more than 400 signatures. The petition outlines at least three deaths in the area in three years, as well as a rescue operation involving the coast guard and armed forces in 2019.
In March, several community groups, including the Tofino-Long Beach Chamber of Commerce and the Ucluelet Chamber of Commerce, met with Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault, whose ministry oversees Parks Canada, to discuss their concerns about coastal safety.
The meeting sought to establish a co-ordinated effort between different levels of government to have lifeguards at all the main beaches in Tofino, with the federal government taking the lead in a model that already exists on the East Coast.
“The outcomes were clear that the region wanted to see boots on the ground and eyes on the water,” said Gord Johns, the NDP MP for Courtenay-Alberni, who previously sponsored Montgomery’s petition.
He added that the communities are waiting for a follow-up meeting with the ministry, which he says needs to happen urgently.
“You won’t find a busier beach in Canada with more people on it without lifeguards or services there to respond in case of an emergency,” Johns said. More than a million people visit Pacific Rim National Park annually, according to Parks Canada.
In a statement to CBC News, Parks Canada said it’s “not feasible” to have lifeguard services for the 16 kilometres of Long Beach’s shoreline throughout the year.
But the agency said it has increased its contributions to coastal safety resources following the March meeting with community groups. It said measures included boosting the number of “dedicated visitor safety response staff” and working to expand the public-access automated external defibrillator program in Long Beach.
It added that the beaches accessible to the public in the area extend beyond the national park reserve, and it would be “best for an independent organization to take the lead in promoting recreational coastal safety” in the region.
Guilbeault also shared this opinion in an Aug. 12 letter with the community groups, which had followed up with him in May to call for actionable steps on the issue.
Both letters were included in the Tuesday agenda for the District of Tofino’s council meeting but weren’t discussed by councillors during the session.
“To further this discussion, I encourage interested parties to organize an online meeting to discuss commitments from regional stakeholders and a clear path forward,” the minister said.