Monday, April 24, 1 X 7 Another phase of safety is swimming and water safety. I don't see the Min ¬ ister of Tourism here, but I want a crack at him before I sit down. You would never know that I was on this side of the House, really. In swimming and water safety during our Annual Seminar and Workshops on safety this year, in connec¬ tion with the annual meeting, we had some very vivid facts brought to mind by several persons. Swimming and water safety is headed up in the Pro¬ vince under the chairmanship of Art Love . Art presented some facts, told us about the lifeguard service, about the swimming courses, and that over ten thousand men, women and children participated last year in day camps that are operated in educating our children mainly towards safer practices while around water. Being an , this is something that must concern all of us. We can go further; we can go into small craft. We can talk about the safety features that we should have in small boats, sixteen feet and under. We can talk about the different safety equipment that must be carried in these boats, but all of these rules and regulations only go far enough to state that this equip¬ ment must be available on the boat. Now, I will give you an example, whether it be a tourist craft that is taking people out deep sea fishing, where you might get fifteen or twenty people in the one boat, whether it is a lobster fisherman and his helper going out to pull traps, or whether it is just a Saturday or Sunday after¬ noon person that has his children probably out for a ride in a motor boat. They must nave one life jacket per person in their boat, and if any of you can tell me, Mr. Speaker , how you are going to get a life jacket on or how it is going to do you any good lying up underneath the bow of the boat when you are pulled over¬ board, I will never know. So regulations are set up, grant you they must have their life jacket. I would think if our fishermen, and probably this is a role that the women in our Province could play by encouraging the husband fisherman to wear these life jackets and not leave them lying about in the boat. One little side track here to give you an example. We were checking life jackets four or five years ago trying to come up with one that could be worn under oilskins, particularly for the lobster fishermen. In checking one boat I found that he had five life jackets in it, when I picked them up, now grant you this, that I picked the three that I thought had the least flotation ability, tied the three of them together, and believe you me two of those were heavy enough to pull the third one four feet from the surface of the water down deep enough that we couldn't get them out and he lost his life jackets. He was quite mad at me for throwing them over, but I think when I explained to him what would have happened had he put one of these on his back and jumped over and relied on it to keep him afloat where he would have been. Now this is going on all over our Province, has been over the past. The regulations only state that you must have them on the boat. I would like to see, probably through the Minister of Fisheries, encouragement given in this line. I know it has been done in the past by his Deputy and an awful lot of work put into it. It is very hard to tell a fisherman who has fished for years that a life jacket will save his life. "I don't need one of them, I have gotten along now for forty years." It will happen to the other guy, not to him. He will be wrong someday and very sorry. Now, at our Seminar they came up with some recommendations, and all of them I agree with 100%. #1 is to promote life guard protection in Provincial and private parks. One of the main questions asked an interviewer that interviews several persons daily on the crossing at Borden, "Are our beaches supervised?" The only answer that they can give, is that the is supervised but Provincial and private parks are not, and this is something I would like to see instituted in our Provincial Parks, a life guard service where they not only police it as life guards, but also for swimming education, classes to people that are tenting for a week or two where their children can take advantage and obtain this knowledge. Requests should be made to community groups to put safety equipment on wharves and swimming areas. And here again, you might wonder why we would ever come up and suggest that communities themselves place this safety equip¬ ment on wharves. You can put improved ring buoys that may be thrown to some¬ body that is in trouble. Those plastic jars that we get certain types of soap and detergents in, not to mention any trade name, a little sand in the bottom of one —m—