Quebec still testing the waters as drownings in the province soar

MONTREAL – The pilot project has been over for more than a year but Quebec is still studying the results of Swim to Survive, a program Ontario has already had in place for several years to teach basic swimming survival skills to children.

Since 2008, five Quebec coroners investigating drowning deaths have recommended the province’s education department offer the program to elementary-school students to reduce drowning.

Two of those recommendations came in the past year, when seven children aged 5 to 18 drowned in Quebec’s lakes, rivers and swimming pools.

Many drowning deaths could be prevented, the coroners said, if children took part in Swim to Survive, a program created by the Lifesaving Society to evaluate whether they know basic swimming skills such as treading water and swimming 50 metres.

This has been a particularly deadly spring and early summer on the water for Quebecers. Forty people have drowned since the beginning of the year, including 22 since June 1. At this point in 2011, 27 people had drowned.

On Tuesday afternoon, police recovered the body of a woman in the Richelieu River. It is believed to be the body of a 19-year-old woman who fell into the river during a boating excursion Sunday.

The high number of drownings this year has led to renewed calls for improved water safety and swimming training.

The head of Quebec’s Lifesaving Society said many of the deaths this year could have been prevented had people followed basic safety rules such as wearing life jackets or not swimming alone.

The lifesaving society developed the Swim to Survive program to help evaluate swimming skills and to teach about water safety, Raynald Hawkins said.

In May, coroner Luc Malouin was the latest to recommend the program for Quebec schools, following his investigation into the drowning death of a 16-year-old boy in the Rouge River north of Mont Tremblant in 2008.

“The best way to prevent deaths is by educating people,” Malouin said in an interview Tuesday. “To avoid drowning deaths among our youth, we have to make sure that they know how to swim.”

Parents have a major role to play in making sure their children take swimming lessons, Malouin said, but the Swim to Survive program will ensure children learn how to cope with an accidental fall into the water.

Malouin said most drowning deaths happen when people who weren’t planning to swim accidentally fall into water within 50 metres of a shoreline, dock, boat or other safe location.

In Ontario, Swim to Survive has been offered to Grade 3 students since 2005. Since then, more than 320,000 Ontario children have taken part in the program, which is funded by the Ontario government, the Lifesaving Society, and private donors. Last year Ontario’s education ministry budgeted $2 million to support the program.

In Quebec, Swim to Survive pilot projects were conducted at schools in Montreal, Quebec City and Trois Rivières during the 2010-2011 school year. But no decision has been made about whether to expand it to all schools in Quebec, ministry spokesperson Esther Chouinard said Tuesday.

There are several issues the ministry is considering, including accessibility to pools and transportation costs, Chouinard said.

Preliminary results from that pilot project found that parents, teachers and children were happy with the program, Malouin’s report said. Still, 21 per cent of the children participating weren’t able to meet the program requirements.

Three swimming skills are evaluated in the three-hour Swim to Survive program: rolling into deep water to simulate an accidental fall, treading water for one minute and swimming 50 metres.

That prepares children to cope with accidental falls into the water, controlling their breathing in the water, and being able to swim to safety – a dock, a boat or the shore, Hawkins said.

Upon completion of the program, children get certificates saying either they have those swimming skills, possess some of them or they are unable to do the three things. Unless the children possess all three skills, it is recommended to their parents that the children be enrolled in swimming lessons, Hawkins said.

Children are also taught basic water-safety rules such as never swimming alone and always wearing a lifesaving device, Hawkins said.

Teachers whose students took part in Quebec’s pilot project reported the program was helpful because many of their students said they knew how to swim when in fact they were unable to complete Swim to Survive, Hawkins said.

“To many kids, going swimming means the same thing as knowing how to swim,” he said.

While it would take several years to be able to see the effect of a widespread basic swimming lessons in Quebec, Hawkins said introducing the Swim to Survive program would also encourage kids to be active, which is good for their health anyway.

Such training can help prevent drownings, Hawkins said. He pointed to Australia, the Netherlands and Scandinavian countries, where swimming education is offered. Drowning rates are lower in those countries, he said.

“It has been a year since the Ministry of Education began studying the program; we hope that they will decide to go ahead with it,” Hawkins said. “We’re still waiting.”