Students in Quebec should be made to pass a mandatory water safety test in grade 3, said the Lifesaving Society Thursday.
The push for a "Swim to Survive" program was reiterated by the lifesaving group Thursday after a nine-year-old boy drowned at the Mont Saint-Sauveur Water Park Wednesday.
The survival training program, which has been implemented in Ontario, makes it obligatory for students to have basic swimming skills in grade 3, including:
- Treading water for 1 minute
- Swimming 50 metres
- Performing a roll in deep water
"Every children in the Quebec province, grade 3 or 4, has to know those three skills, those minimum three water skills," said Raynald Hawkins, director general of the Lifesaving Society of Quebec.
Weak swimmers are encouraged to take swimming lessons, and the program has resulted in an increase in aquatic instruction in Toronto and Ottawa, explained Hawkins.
Wave pool closed
The message for safer young swimmers is one that comes after the death of a Laval boy found at the bottom of the wave pool at the water park, 75 kilometres north of Montreal. The child was on an end-of-year class trip.
The wave pool remained closed Thursday as Surete du Quebec officers scoured the scene to determine the exact cause of the boy's death.
The pool has been cordoned off, and officials from the St. Sauveur Water Park said the pool will remain closed until police terminate their investigation.
"We are collaborating with the Surete du Quebec investigation. They have asked us for now to keep the wave pool closed," said Sauveur Water Park spokesperson Christian Dufour.
The drowning is a first in the history of the park, said Dufour.
