How safety protocols at Canadian beaches are adjusting to climate change, abrupt weather shifts

With experts detecting another scorching summer on its way, Canadians will likely turn to the most obvious remedy for heat: Water.

But as public beaches, marinas and other waterfronts ease pandemic restrictions throughout the country, new safety considerations are being aimed towards the dangers shorelines face from climate change.

“Because climate change is accelerating, and the impacts we’re seeing on our coast are getting worse and worse every year, we’re left in a state where we need to continue to monitor,” said Gregry Ford, director of water programs for Swim Drink Fish, a registered charity that helps safeguard national waterfronts through promoting management, monitoring and education practices.

“We need to know how our shorelines are changing so we can better address both the safety concerns and hazard mapping with conservation areas across the board,” Ford told CTVNews.ca.

Swim Drink Fish has been the Canadian operator for Blue Flag International since 2020. This year Ford helped designate 22 beaches and 10 marinas with a Blue Flag, an award given to community waterfronts that meet high environmental, safety and cleanliness standards.

This year, he says, climate change has become a point of consideration while assessing waterfront safety standards.

“Obviously with increased rainfall we’re getting more precipitation from storm events, and increased precipitation leads to increased occurrences of combined sewer overflows, and our combined sewers are unfortunately let into a lot of our waterways,” Ford said, citing one example of how increased frequency of storm surges can cause problems for public health.

“One of the ways we look to address that is by including information on signage like best practices to avoid the water for 48 to 72 hours after a heavy rainfall,” he said.

Ford also explained that his team is working on identifying areas of active erosion as a result of increased storm events, as an effort to learn about which areas are more hazardous during abrupt weather shifts.

“It’s really an education, out-reach and awareness campaign, where we’re helping people to make sure that they know what the risks are, they know how the shoreline is changing,” he said.

“By informing them about those changes, and involving them in actually monitoring these changes, they can then become the stewards of their waterfronts.”