The City of Montreal is increasing the minimum age for youngsters to be allowed into its public swimming pools without supervision.
The city has decided to raise the age to eight years old from six in light of several drownings.
There's also a height requirement, even if the child is eight.
Raynald Hawkins, director of the Quebec Lifesaving Society, notes that eight-year-olds have the skills to swim and 50 per cent of them can survive in the deep end of a pool.
He says 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.
Montreal consulted with its boroughs and other Quebec towns before council adopted the new regulation, which went into effect as soon as pools across the city opened to the public.