WIRA Frequently Asked Questions

• Why was WIRA created?
• Why should I become a WIRA member?
• How do I become a WIRA member?
• I'm a journalist. Who can I call for more information about WIRA?
• What is the scope of WIRA's data? How is WIRA data collected?
• How is it processed?
• I'm not a WIRA member. How can I get additional information, beyond what's available in your online Summary Report?
• I'm a WIRA member. How can I get additional information beyond what is available in Detailed WIRA Data for Members Only?
• Why do I have to pay to obtain WIRA data and become a member?

Every year, approximately 600 Canadians drown. Their voices weren’t being heard. Since the early 1990's, the Canadian Red Cross and the Lifesaving Society have partnered with provincial and territorial coroners' offices to collect data on drownings and water-related deaths in Canada. There had been a delay of one to two years after incidents before the data on fatalities was available and even then, the information was not easily accessible.

Even more troubling is the fact that, prior to the establishment of WIRA, there was no data covering non-fatal water-related incidents and injuries along with the causal risk factors. Such information is essential to the development of prevention and education strategies.

Many stakeholders have said they want and need easy access to such data. These parties include municipal, provincial and federal governments; community health agencies; cottage associations; non-profit recreational organizations and related charitable organizations; local and regional health units; and the media. WIRA was created to answer this need.

WIRA members can quickly and easily access the most current, detailed information on water-related injuries and fatalities, including geographical breakdowns of the data.

WIRA's detailed data is only available to its members. Members can access the data online in easy-to-understand data tables, and use our on-site search engine to quickly find the particular data they want. They can also download particular data tables they need. Non-members can only access summary information.

Members can also make special requests to obtain customized tabulation and reporting of WIRA data.

Simply fill out our online application form. If you're unable to apply online or if you have questions, please contact WIRA.
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Please contact Jodie Bala, WIRA manager, who will be pleased to answer any questions you may have:
Phone: (705) 735-0544
Fax: (705) 735-0644
E-mail: jbala@waterincident.ca
80 Bradford St., Suite 325
Barrie, ON L4N 6S7

WIRA collects data involving all incidents that occur in Canada "in, on, or near water" (including Canadian waters up to 200 miles off-shore). The focus is on gathering information about unintentional but "significant" injuries that require medical attention beyond first aid by bystanders or front-line/on-site employees. These injuries include fatalities such as drownings, "major" injuries requiring hospitalization, and "minor" injuries that require doctor or dentist follow-up or activation of emergency medical services such as 9-1-1, ambulance, fire or police, or hospital emergency room or clinic follow-up.

WIRA also collects data on any reported incidents involving rescues, or "insignificant" personal injuries which require first aid only. Incidents involving boating, in-water aquatic (e.g., swimming, diving, etc.), and non-aquatic activities (e.g., walking or playing near water or on ice and falling in) are all covered, as are those involving recreational activities, daily living activities (such as travel, bathing and walking) and occupational activities.

WIRA's scope is national. Data is collected, checked and consolidated for all water- related incidents occurring in Canada that are reported to us. WIRA also breaks out regional, provincial and local data. We tabulate and publish current year-to-date data.

WIRA receives its incident data from a range of Data Collectors, including first responders (such as ambulance, fire, police, Coast Guard and lifeguards), the medical system, media monitoring services, municipalities and community representatives. WIRA has created the standardized Water Incident Report Form for collecting this data. The data collected is checked, processed, and consolidated into a combined database and published by WIRA on this Web site.

Our Summary Report provides national highlights from WIRA's data. To access the most current, more detailed information on water-related injuries and fatalities, with geographical breakdowns, you should consider becoming a WIRA member.

As a WIRA member, you can make special requests to obtain customized tabulation and reporting of WIRA data beyond what is available on this Web site.  Please submit a "Request for Additional WIRA Data". After we receive your request we will get back to you in order to clarify your needs.

Even though WIRA is a not-for-profit organization, there are significant costs involved in the collection, processing, tabulating and publishing of our data. WIRA has been fortunate to receive significant funding from the National Search and Rescue Secretariat for its initial startup and development costs. Beyond this initial funding, however, WIRA must become and remain self-funded.

Membership fees are our only source of revenue for our ongoing operating costs. WIRA can only continue to provide water-related incident and injury data if organizations who want this data sign up as WIRA members. Each member gets major shared-cost economies of scale. The fees received from each member contribute toward covering the cost of generating and providing WIRA data. These fees help develop the depth and breadth of data members can access, which is more than any single organization could create on its own.
Our members have told us they are prepared to pay a modest fee to access water-related incident data in a summarized, easy-to-access, easy-to-use format. If you want and need the kind of data that WIRA provides, we would like to have you as a member.