Swim for Life is a swim program for people of all ages. It includes a preschool program, a swimmer program, and an adult program. 

The addition of Swim for Life into the LSI program, is cause for concern because:

- Teaching lifesaving, and teaching swimming lessons are two very different skills.

- The 40 hour LSI course that teaches students to instruct, and evaluate all of the Swim Patrol, Bronze Family, and Distinction is already tight for time. The additional 4 hours (making LSI 44 hours) to learn to teach swimming lessons is not nearly enough.

- With other organizations (example: Red Cross), candidates must take a 40 hours course to learn all of the strokes, and how to deal with a wide range of learners. 

- We are essentially opening the door to very low teaching abilities as we now have instructors teaching programs that they used to need 80 hours + to be certified in.

- This is adding unnecessary costs to a program that is already very expensive. 

While the addition of Swim for Life into the LSI program may be in the best interest of the society, it is not in the best interest of candidates, instructors, and instructor trainers.

Swim for Life is a very small name in the Manitoba swimming community, and very few are required to be certified in this program. There is no need for many to be trained in Swim for Life as they are not employed by employers who support this program.

We, the undersigned would like the society to review this decision.