Under Quebec law, municipalities can insist on fencing around all residential pools

Cheryl Cornacchia

The Gazette
Monday, July 16, 2012

ENLARGE

Kids swim in pool which has a security fence installed, sections of the fence can quickly be removed when in use.

A provision under Quebec law gives municipalities the right to create their own municipal bylaws that would require homeowners to install fencing around residential pools not only around the yard where the pool is located.

But no West Island municipalities, in fact, no municipalities on Montreal Island, have used the special provision to draft bylaws that would require owners of older pools to also install pool fencing and, not just fencing around the yard where the pool is located, says Raynald Hawkins of Quebec’s Lifesaving Society.

Kirkland would be a leader if it were to bring in a municipal bylaw requiring homeowners to install fencing around backyard pools that were put in place before July 22, 2010, the date pool fencing is required under the provincial law, Hawkins added.

Hawkins made the comments in a telephone interview about backyard pool safety.

Access to residential pools has become an issue this summer after a spike in drownings, including one in Kirkland, the drowning of an 18-month old toddler in a family’s in-ground pool July 4.

On July 12, two more drownings — that of two-year-old girl in St. Rémi and a two-year-old boy in Ste. Anne des Plaines — brought the total number of Quebec drownings this year to 43 — up from 29 at this date last year.

Even though suburban Montreal is home to some of the most densely-pooled neighbourhoods in Quebec, Hawkins surmised, municipal officials fear a backlash if they were to force homeowners to install new fencing around older pools.

Last week, Kirkland town officials said they are reviewing their existing bylaws requiring only pool fencing around new pools, installed after July 22, 2010, but there are no plans at the moment to change them.

"It takes a lot of courage on a municipality’s part," Hawkins said, citing the cost of new pool fencing.

Hawkins suggested municipal officials could ease the burden of requiring homeowners to install fencing around pools that predate July 2010 by giving pool owners time, say two to three years to install the new fencing.

The new fencing would still improve pool safety for years to come, given that the average life of an above-ground pool is 20 years and, the average life of an in-ground pool is 30 years, said Hawkins.

There are an estimated 220,000 above-ground pools and 80,000 in-ground pools, according to a survey by the magazine Pool & Spa done.

Katy Aquatics to host pool safety program

Posted: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 11:57 pm
Submitted

KATY Aquatics, a local, non-profit swim club, has become a partner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Pool Safely campaign. It will host a water safety event on July 26.

The Pool Safely campaign is an effort to reduce childhood drownings, submersion injuries and entrapments.

KATY Aquatics will conduct free swim lessons and water safety presentations. Other activities will include face painting and pictures with Bob the Water Safety Dog. The event begins at 5 p.m. at Cinco Ranch High School natatorium, 23440 Cinco Ranch Blvd.

To register for a spot at the event visit www.katyaquatics.org and go to the Pool Safely Day link. The first 50 children registered for the swim sesson will also receive a free goody bag. All children will receive a free water safety book.

Drowning is a leading cause of death for children younger than 5, and the CPSC estimates that each year nearly 300 children drown and more than 3,200 end up in hospital emergency rooms because of submersion injuries.

The Pool Safely campaign encourages adults to stay close to children in a pool or spa, constantly watch children in and around the water, know life-saving skills - such as how to swim and performing CPR - and install safety equipment in and around the pool.

KATY Aquatics offers the nationally recognized learn-to-swim program, SwimAmerica. The SwimAmerica program is designed to teach children as young as 3 years old, the life-long skill of swimming. For more information on KATY Aquatics contact 281-391-7200 or visit www.katyaquatics.org.

A fence around every swimming pool would help prevent deaths

BY DEBBIE FRIEDMAN JULY 9, 2012 Regardless of age or skill level, no one is drown-proof. Each year in Canada approximately 60 children aged 14 and under drown, while another 140 are hospitalized for near-drowning events.

Quebec has already seen 40 drownings this year, and the summer has just begun. What does this tell us? More importantly, how can we reverse this disturbing trend? As director of trauma and director of the Canadian Hospitals Injury Prevention and Reporting Program at the Montreal Children’s Hospital, I believe the answer lies in the promotion of more concurrent initiatives to prevent trauma-related injuries such as drowning.

 I strongly support the Quebec government’s Residential Swimming Pool Safety Law unveiled in 2010. This law includes mandatory fencing around pools installed after July 22, 2010. However, I fail to comprehend why all municipalities do not have bylaws that would require all backyard swimming pools – not just newly installed ones – to be surrounded by four-sided fencing at least four feet in height, with automatic locking gates and no opening below the fence.

The risk of drowning is the same in a pool built prior to 2010 as in those built after 2010. Since 2008, five coroners investigating drowning deaths have recommended that the province’s ministry of education roll out a Swim to Survive program to promote basic swimming skills to school-aged children. Two of those recommendations came in the past year when seven children aged 5 to 18 drowned in Quebec’s rivers and swimming pools.

This week the government finally vowed to implement this life-saving program for Quebec children in Grade 3. I commend this plan and certainly support it. But what about the children who never make it to Grade 3? According to Safe Kids Canada (safekidscanada.ca), a national injury-prevention program, the majority of drowning deaths among young children involve those under the age of 5. Many of these tragic deaths take place in backyard swimming pools.

 Young children are curious. They do not recognize the potential for danger. And they are impulsive. A warm summer day around a pool is great family fun but vigilant supervision at all times, with all eyes on the water, is essential. A young child can quickly panic and drown. Over the past few weeks, the Montreal Children’s Hospital trauma centre has treated several children under the age of 5 who have drowned in above-ground or in-ground backyard swimming pools.

The new swimming program would have done little to prevent these deaths. The World Health Organization recommends that prevention strategies should be developed using a combination of educational initiatives, environmental measures, engineering modifications and, yes, in some cases, enforcement and legislation. Successful life-saving and injury-prevention ventures often require concurrent initiatives, none of which are mutually exclusive.

The bottom line is that the aforementioned strategies are all needed, and they are needed now.Debbie Friedmanis trauma director of the Montreal Children’s Hospital and an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the McGill University Faculty of Medicine. © Copyright (c) The Montreal Gazette Original source article: A fence around every swimming pool would help prevent deaths