Canadian Association of Diving Contractors

Seneca College – a publicly assisted postsecondary institution – has announced that they will be cancelling their Underwater Skills program. This decision was made WITHOUT stakeholder consultation about this action. Stakeholders include all commercial or occupational diving entities, public service safety divers, educators, military, and regulators.

(From Seneca College website March 29^th, 2023) website: “After an incredible 45 years preparing commercial divers for a wide variety of careers both locally and internationally, Seneca has made the difficult decision to cancel the Underwater Skills program. Applications are no longer being accepted into this program.”)

The impact of closing the program – without stakeholder consultation input or as to its impact – has serious repercussions in the industry regarding the training of qualified occupational divers in Ontario – and the Health and Safety issues associated with the training of personnel within the underwater industry in Ontario, nationally and internationally.

Currently the industry is struggling to find (and hire) qualified COMPETENT diving personnel with the skills and experience to necessary conduct safe diving operations in this province. It is a national crisis. It is a regulatory requirement – both provincially and nationally (Bill C-45) – to ensure worker safety by making sure that personnel are competent to a level of diving competence – in our case, it is to the Canadian Standards Associations Z275.4 Diving Competency Standard (with certification of this level of competency by the Diver Certification of Canada (DCBC)) as proof. Regulatory safety inspectors are looking for that certification of compliance and competence. The Seneca College Underwater Skills program provides the training to comply with this standard.

The Ontario MOL has recognized this and in fact, has partnered with Seneca to develop a special training program to identify health and safety issues in the diving industry so they can work safely in compliance to the Ontario Health and Safety regulation.  (See attached article CADC Magazine.)

Another serious situation is to diver health and safety in the Public Safety Divers. (Police, Fire, Search and Rescue). Seneca College UWS have been instrumental in the upgrading of the public safety diver training to comply to the diving competency standard (Z275.4) and developed a program to support specific training for a public safety diving program that supported that capability.  The Ontario Provincial Police Underwater Search and Recovery Dive Unit is an excellent example of an Ontario Public Safety dive group seeking and continually receiving education for the UWS.

With no stakeholder consultation or lead up to a potential closure by Seneca, they have left little to no time to plan or find alternative options to continue with critical investigative or public safety response such as drowning investigations, weapon and evidence searches and in water security that some agencies provide to local, Provincial, and federal government within Ontario.

The closure of the program means that the critical requirement of training of diving personnel to meet the demand to attain training to recognized a standard of competency (Z275.4 – Diving Competency) to meet regulatory occupational health and safety criteria , is severely limited in Ontario when in fact there is a critical shortage of personnel in the province who are qualified to do the job in spite of the high a demand for qualified personnel.  The training required to meet the demand will not be available. Incidents and accidents will happen due to inadequate training to recognized standards and enforcement by knowledgeable regulators.

The closing of the program also means that the training of MOL inspectors to identify Health and Safety issues in the industry – or the training of our public safety divers – creates a situation where an important branch of public service is in a position that they themselves may not be able to respond with qualified individuals. Both the regulatory authority (MOL Inspectors) and our public safety divers simply may not be qualified or competent to do their job.

Closing the program without consultation with the industry stakeholders appears to be short sighted. The implications for our industry in terms of diver health and safety are tremendous. There is a high demand for qualified people. There is a shortage of people.

Seneca College’s Underwater Skills program is recognized worldwide and their input to the development of diving safety standards is acknowledged by the industry as being important and significant. They continue to be a considerable contributor to diver safety development through their active involvement within the CSA Dive Standards group – with leadership roles in all major dive standards committees.

To address the serious concerns for the health, safety, and welfare of personnel within our industry, the MOL, public service agencies and industry must immediately and assertively urge the Seneca Board of Governors to consult with all stakeholders and reassess their decision accordingly.

NOTE: TO SIGN A PETITION TO CONTINUE THIS VITAL PROGRAM, GO TO https://chng.it/2DcmLf98kD