The City of Montreal has raised the minimum age for children to swim in public pools unaccompanied by a guardian to eight years old.
Under the new rules — which came into effect at the beginning of the summer — young, unsupervised swimmers must also be of a certain height, even if they meet the age requirement.
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The Quebec Lifesaving Society praised the decision, saying it would help prevent young children from drowning.
“Overall in Quebec, at eight years old you are the minimum height to be on the shallow end of the swimming pool and also you can react properly if you jump in the deep side of the swimming pool,” said director Richard Hawkins.
He said the city tried to harmonize the rules since the minimum age requirement for unsupervised children in Montreal was six or seven years old — depending on the public pool.
“I think the role and the responsibility as the owner of swimming facilities is to make sure we don’t have any potential for drowning situations.”
The move comes as a relief to parents like Madeleine Bernatchez, who said she wouldn’t be comfortable leaving her six and seven-year-old children swim without supervision at a public pool.
“It’s definitely an individual case-by-case basis,” she said. “But to put it at eight makes it safer in terms of overall.
“It gives them two more years to get that maturity, to know how to react in water — especially in a big crowd.”
Supervision is key to preventing child drownings
While boosting the age requirement is a good step forward, Hawkins said the best way to combat child drownings in Quebec is to make sure children can swim and they are always supervised while swimming.
Hawkins said 13 per cent of drownings in Quebec occur in private pools like those in backyards, apartment buildings and hotels and that less than one per cent happen in public pools.
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But when it comes to children, Hawkins said 91 per cent of drownings happen when they are not supervised or the guardian is distracted.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s inside a swimming pool like this, it doesn’t matter if it’s a backyard pool, or lakes or water parks,” he said. “Overall, we know the kids are alone or they don’t have any skills.”
While public pools have lifeguards, Hawkins said parental supervision is still important.
“I make the parallel, I say to the parents, ‘do you think you would let your parents play out in the street without being supervised?'” he said. “The answer is a pretty solid no, so this is the same reality when you’re using a swimming facility.”
— with files from Billy Shields and the Canadian Press