Cities can impose pool-fencing laws

A provision under Quebec law gives municipalities the right to create their own municipal bylaws to 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 such pool fencing, 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 back- yard pools that were put in place before July 22, 2010, the date pool fencing became mandatory 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 on July 4, when an 18-month-old toddler died in her family’s inground pool.

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, 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.

He suggested municipal officials could ease the burden of requiring homeowners to install fencing around pools 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, Hawkins said.