The Gazette
Monday, July 16, 2012
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.
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