Print

E-mail

Text

All new backyard pools installed in the City of Toronto must be surrounded by fencing on all four sides after city council approved a bylaw amendment Tuesday.

Councillors voted in favour the new requirement in an effort to prevent drowning deaths among children.

"Put in the fourth fence, fewer children die. You leave things the way they are, more children die," Ward 33 (Don Valley East) Shelley Carroll said in council chambers. "It's pretty straightforward."

Backyard pools are currently required to be surrounded by fencing. But they can generally be accessed directly from the house.

Under the new bylaw, a fence must be erected between the house and the pool to ensure children can't wander out the back door and fall into the water.

"Let me tell you, kids can find ways to get through just about any door," said Carroll, who urged her colleagues to approve the amendment.

"You do eventually have to leave your kids for a split second because you can't just not go to the bathroom until they're 10," Carroll added. "And so we need every deterrent we can to prevent them from getting out the door to the pool."

Ward 15 (Eglinton-Lawrence) Councillor Howard Moscoe also urged fellow councillors to approve the amendment without deferring the matter for further consultation.

"This is a matter of child safety. The fact of the matter is we're talking about toddlers," he said. "There is no compelling reason to refer this matter back. Don't let three toddlers drown while you're debating the bylaw and have that on your conscience. If there are 300 pool application permits a year, there will be 300 pools that will be safe."

Moscoe continued, saying: "Don't let the manufacturers who want to sell pools send this back to kill the bylaw, because that's their intention. Their intention is to kill the provision. And I don't want to see that happen. We had lots of consultation. Enough. Put the safety issue in place ... don't risk the life of even a single toddler who might fall into a pool and drown."