Even though Minister Genevieve Guilbault announced a last-minute delay to new residential pool safety regulations, cities are continuing inspections.
Faced with opposition from citizen groups, Legault's government agreed to delay implementation of the new standards for at least one year. Some of them, in particular, condemned the high cost of reforms to be carried out around the pools. The only problem is that the Minister of Municipal Affairs has been slow to publish a regulation changing the effective date, which is still officially set at September 30, 2025.
Due to legal uncertainty, citizens are not protected from inspections by municipal authorities and from surveillance by agents in their own backyard.
For example, the city of Bromont has decided to continue inspections of residential pools throughout its territory.
“Despite the Government's delay, we continue to support owners in bringing their swimming pools into compliance with the Residential Swimming Pool Safety Regulation,” said Amelie Casaubon, communications manager for the Estrie-based municipality, in a statement sent to our parliamentary office.
Reports of violations
The City of Bromont encourages support for properties affected by the new regulations.
“Depending on the date of pool installation and the regulations in effect at that time, as well as citizen participation in bringing them into compliance, the City reserves the right to file violation reports,” the spokesperson adds.
In Minister Guilbault's office, we are still working on a regulation that would give pool owners a one-year reprieve. Because the provisions will be retroactive to September 30, fines that could be imposed for installations that do not comply with the new standards will no longer apply, they insist.
The rules, which were due to apply from the end of September, in particular required that access to swimming pools be protected by a fence at least 1.2 meters high, the distance between the bars does not exceed 10 centimeters. The doors also had to be equipped with an automatic closing and locking device. And the fines promised to be considerable: from $500 for the first violation to $1,000 for a repeated violation.
