Paddle Canada First Aid Policy for Instructor Members
(last updated June 2013)
The two policy changes are as follows:
1) First Aid Requirements and Standards
Paddle Canada Instructors are required to maintain a minimum of Standard First Aid / CPR (14 hours) or Wilderness First Aid (16 hours). Insurance and sanctioned courses are not valid unless the instructors on the course meet the minimum First Aid requirements as outlined in the specific course syllabus.
Wilderness First Aid is the minimum required by any instructor certified to teach a course where an overnight is built into the syllabus. Unless stated otherwise, Standard First Aid/CPR is the minimum required for all other courses. Please refer to the course syllabus for the specific first aid level required.
2) First Aid Policy for Courses Operating in the Wilderness
If the course location is taking place farther away than an hour from medical care, the instructors on the course are required to have Wilderness First Aid (16 hour) as a minimum certification. If you are uncertain to the length of time to medical care, get your Wilderness First Aid certification.
Policy Phase-in Period and Information Campaign
To encourage compliance to the new policies, we are recommending that Paddle Canada phase these new policies over the 2014-15 seasons. The phase in plan would be as follows:
New and existing instructors will be required to comply at the start of the 2014 paddling season with section 1 of the policy..
The “courses running in the wilderness” policy (section 2) will not be enforced until January 1, 2015. This will give individual instructors and paddling schools enough time for to get properly certified for compliance.
