City of Toronto lifeguards will return to nine City beaches on Saturday, June 1, 2024:
When a beach is open:
When a beach is closed:
Swimming without the supervision of a lifeguard is not recommended. Swimming outside designated swim areas is not permitted. For additional details please visit the City's Beach website.
Blue Flag is an international award granted to more than 4800 beaches and marinas in 49 countries. Since 2005, the City of Toronto has been awarded Blue Flags at eight of its 10 swimming beaches. Flying the Blue Flag means that the beach has met 33 criteria with respect to water quality, environmental management, environmental education, and safety and services. Swim Drink Fish is the Canadian operator of the Blue Flag program. For more information, visit the Blue Flag Canada website.
Blue Flag Beaches:
Every day during beach season (June to Labour Day), the City collects water samples at each of Toronto's 10 swimming beaches. These samples are analyzed by Toronto Public Health, which determines whether each beach is safe for swimming. The results are posted at toronto.ca/beach-water-quality approximately 24 hours after the samples are collected.
The designation of a swimming beach as a Blue Flag beach means that a beach is open 80 per cent of the time during the beach season. Toronto has one of the toughest quality standards for determining whether beaches are safe for swimming. Toronto follows Ontario's criteria and will close a beach when E.coli levels exceed 100 E.coli per 100 millilitres of water, while the rest of Canada has a limit of 200 E.coli. for 100 millilitres of water.
For information on beach safety, such as knowing the flags, visit the City of Toronto website.
You can contact the beach hotline to check the status of the beaches, or you can also check the City of Toronto website.