It doesn’t look like lifeguards will return to Thetis Lake any time soon.
The Capital Regional District Parks Committee decided better signage and education is the way to go, instead of bringing back lifeguards at regional parks.
After several serious incidents this summer the CRD revisited the idea of returning lifeguards to Thetis Lake. But staff say lifeguards would have made little difference in this summer's incidents at least.
View Royal Mayor David Screech disagreed with the recommendations, "that beach at Thetis gets busier and busier every year. There are a lot of children there. More signs [won't] help when most of the people who drowned were English as a second language students." View Royal Council wrote to the CRD asking for the return to lifeguards. Thetis is a regional park, but it falls within the municipal boundaries of View Royal.
Lifeguards were employed at Thetis Lake and Elk/Beaver Lakes until 2003.