It's May. You're simultaneously interviewing lifeguard candidates, chasing down a plumber about the shower block, updating the staff handbook, and trying to remember whether last year's CPR masks are still in the infirmary cabinet. Sound familiar?
Spring is the most chaotic season on any camp director's calendar — and somewhere in the middle of all of it, you also have to be ready for your public health inspection. Provincial health units enforce Ontario Regulation 503/17: Recreational Camps (and equivalent regulations in other provinces) with increasing rigour, and the Ontario Camps Association and Canadian Camping Association have raised the bar on their own accreditation standards too. Stuffing a few bandages into a plastic tackle box doesn't cut it anymore.
The good news: compliance is completely manageable if you break it into zones. Your camp is really three distinct environments — the base camp infirmary, the active zones like waterfronts and sports fields, and the wilderness where your out-trips venture. Each zone has its own rules, its own risks, and its own kit requirements. Get each one right, and you'll sail through your 2026 inspection.
Here's exactly how to do it.
Zone 1: The Base Camp Infirmary — Your Medical Hub
Your main health centre isn't just a place to treat campers' scraped knees. Under provincial occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation, it also functions as a workplace — because the staff who operate there are employees. That dual status matters for how you need to equip it.
The national benchmark for workplace first aid kit requirements is CSA Z1220-17 (R2021), Canada's standard for first aid kits in the workplace. Under this standard, kits are classified into three types based on worker count and environment risk:
- Type 1 (Personal): For isolated or lone workers — think the maintenance staffer doing a solo patrol.
- Type 2 (Basic): For low-to-moderate risk environments with defined worker counts. A small Type 2 covers 2–25 workers per shift; medium covers 26–50; large covers 51–100.
- Type 3 (Intermediate): For higher-risk workplaces. Includes everything in a Type 2 kit plus arterial tourniquets, metal splints, and additional dressings for more serious trauma.
For most residential camps, the main infirmary and dining hall should be equipped with at least a Type 2 Medium or Type 2 Large kit depending on your combined staff and camper head count. Maintenance sheds and other higher-risk work areas should be assessed for a Type 3. Public health inspectors know this standard and will cross-reference it.
Beyond having the right kit type, inspectors will focus on two things above all else:
1. Unexpired Supplies
Every consumable item — antiseptic ointments, sterile dressings, adhesive bandages, CPR barrier masks — has an expiry date. Inspectors will check them. Anything expired from 2023 or 2024 needs to be pulled before opening day, no exceptions. The easiest approach is the Expiry Purge described in the pre-season checklist at the bottom of this article.
2. Meticulous First Aid Logs
Ontario Reg 503/17 requires that operators record all health and safety incidents in the camp in accordance with the safety plan. In practice, that means a properly maintained first aid record book in every care station. Every time a counsellor dispenses a bandage, applies an ice pack, or provides any first aid treatment, it needs to be logged with the date, time, name of the person treated, nature of the injury, and treatment given. Inspectors will ask for it. Make it a habit from Day 1.
Audit Your Buildings Before the Inspector Does
Walk your infirmary, dining hall, and maintenance shed now — before opening day — using a structured checklist. First Aid Direct's Free Canadian Workplace First Aid Audit Tools are built specifically for this. They're digital, mobile-friendly, and walk you through every requirement section by section. Run them on your smartphone and you'll know exactly where you stand before the public health inspector arrives.
Zone 2: Waterfronts & Sports Fields — Your High-Risk Zones
If Zone 1 is where compliance is documented, Zone 2 is where the actual injuries happen. Research consistently shows that the vast majority of camp injuries — sprains, lacerations, heat exhaustion, water-related incidents — occur away from the main buildings, at waterfronts and on sports fields. That's where your preparedness needs to be sharpest.
The Waterfront Is Legally Distinct
Ontario Reg 503/17 is explicit about waterfront requirements. Every operator must ensure that each waterfront area has specific rescue equipment present and immediately accessible — including buoyant rescue aids on a shoulder loop, reaching poles of at least three metres in length, and buoyant throwing aids attached to a line of at least eight metres. Critically, the regulation also mandates first aid supplies in sufficient quantities at the waterfront itself.
That last point matters more than it sounds. "At the waterfront" means at the waterfront — not in the infirmary a five-minute walk away. If a child gets a gash from a dock nail or a lifeguard needs supplies to manage a suspected spinal injury, the counsellor should never have to leave the scene to retrieve basic first aid equipment. The supplies need to be there.
The same principle applies to your sports fields, archery range, and climbing wall. These are high-activity areas with high injury potential. A grab-and-go kit needs to be accessible at every active zone.
What Goes in a Waterfront or Field Kit
Standard wall-mounted infirmary kits aren't designed for outdoor, weather-exposed environments. Your waterfront and field kits need to be rugged, portable, and purpose-built for athletic and outdoor use. At minimum, these kits should include:
- Instant cold packs — for sprains, strains, and impact injuries (a staple in any sports environment)
- CPR barrier masks with one-way valve — mandatory for any lifeguarded area
- Nitrile examination gloves — multiple pairs per kit
- Triangular bandages and elastic bandages — for sprains, slings, and immobilization
- Sterile gauze and pressure dressings — for wound management
- Emergency rescue blanket — now required under CSA Z1220-17 and essential for cold-water shock or prolonged exposure at a waterfront
- Waterproof or water-resistant container — because dock humidity, rain, and splashing will destroy a standard cardboard kit
First Aid Direct's CSA-Compliant Athletic & Outdoor First Aid Kits are designed exactly for this application — built for durability, portability, and compliance in outdoor, high-activity environments. Your head lifeguard and athletic director should each have one staged and ready at their station before the first camper arrives.
Zone 3: Out-Trips & Wilderness Excursions — When the Rules Change
The moment a cabin group paddles around the point on an overnight canoe trip, or a hiking group disappears into the backcountry for three days, your risk environment changes fundamentally. Standard camp first aid protocols are no longer sufficient.
The 3-Hour Rule
The benchmark used widely in Canadian wilderness programming — including by Scouts Canada and outdoor education organizations — is a travel-time threshold: if a group is more than three hours from definitive medical care or ambulance access, you're operating in a wilderness context. That changes both the training and the gear requirements.
In a wilderness setting, standard Standard First Aid/CPR-C certification isn't enough for trip leaders. Injuries that are manageable at a camp infirmary — a suspected fracture, a severe allergic reaction, a hypothermia onset — can become life-threatening when you're hours from an ambulance. Trip leaders on multi-day backcountry excursions should hold at minimum a Wilderness First Aid (WFA) certification, and ideally Wilderness First Responder (WFR) for extended expeditions. This is an industry expectation that Ontario Camps Association standards and your public liability insurer will increasingly look for.
Gear Built for the Field
Wall-mounted kits are useless in a canoe or a backpack. Wilderness out-trips need rugged, portable, purpose-built kits that can take punishment from weather, water, and rough terrain. Key items for wilderness kits that go beyond a standard workplace kit include:
- Emergency rescue blankets — CSA Z1220-17 now mandates these, and they're critical for hypothermia management in unexpected cold snaps or capsize scenarios
- SAM splints — lightweight, reusable, and essential for fracture management in the field
- Irrigation syringe — for wound cleaning when you're days from a clinic
- Blister management supplies — moleskin and second-skin dressings for long-haul hikers
- Extended medication supplies — where your nurse or designated first aider is authorized to carry them
- Waterproof backpack or fanny pack kit — the container matters as much as the contents
The Athletic & Outdoor First Aid Kit collection includes backpack and fanny pack format kits built exactly for this purpose — compact enough to carry, robust enough to perform. For camp vans and vehicles transporting campers to trailheads and launch points, First Aid Direct's Vehicle & Outdoor Emergency Supplies will ensure your transport fleet meets requirements too.
The 2026 Pre-Season Audit Checklist (Three Steps, Done)
You don't need a 40-point spreadsheet. You need three focused actions before opening day:
Step 1: The Expiry Purge
Empty every first aid kit in your camp — infirmary, activity zones, vehicles, trip packs — onto a table. Check every single item for an expiry date and pull anything that's expired or expires before the end of your camp season. This includes ointments, bandages, medications, CPR masks, and gloves (yes, gloves degrade too). Don't risk it: inspectors will check dates, and expired supplies can be grounds for a failed inspection.
Step 2: Verify Staff Certifications
Ontario Reg 503/17 requires that campers are under the continuous supervision of at least one adult with a current first aid certificate at all times — not just on paper, but in practice. Audit your full staff list now:
- All counsellors: current Standard First Aid/CPR-C
- All waterfront staff: current National Lifeguard (NL) certification (updated per the 2023 regulatory change aligning with Lifesaving Society standards)
- Out-trip leaders on backcountry excursions: Wilderness First Aid or higher
- Your head nurse or designated health officer: documented and on file in the camp safety plan
Your camp safety plan — which must be submitted to your Public Health Inspector before opening — must include a complete list of all staff with current first aid certificates. Build it now, not the week before you open.
Step 3: Run a Digital Compliance Audit
Take your smartphone and walk every building and active zone on your property. Use First Aid Direct's Free Provincial Compliance Audit Tools to check off requirements room by room. These tools are built around CSA Z1220-17 and provincial workplace safety regulations — the same framework your inspector is using. Any gaps you find now are gaps you can fix before the inspection, not during it.
A Safe Camp Is a Great Camp
Summer camp is one of the most formative experiences a kid can have. The memories made around a campfire, on a canoe, and at the end of a ropes course last a lifetime. But those experiences only happen in a climate of genuine safety — one that starts with the right equipment, properly maintained, in the right hands.
Don't let a missing roll of gauze, an expired CPR mask, or a kit that never made it to the waterfront be the reason your camp hits a compliance snag or — worse — fails a child in a real emergency.
Restock your infirmary. Stage your waterfront and field kits. Equip your out-trip leaders. Run the audit tools. And then send those kids off to have the best summer of their lives, knowing you've got them covered.
→ Shop CSA-Compliant Athletic & Outdoor First Aid Kits
→ Run your free Provincial First Aid Compliance Audit
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