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A young boy and his mom pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in Parc Ouellette in the Montreal borough of LaSalle on Wednesday, June 3 2026. A three-year-old toddler died of her injuries after a bouncy castle was swept up by strong winds on Sunday. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi – The Canadian Press \u00b7 The Canadian Press <\/p>\n
MONTREAL \u2014 The death of a three-year-old girl after a bouncy castle was lifted into the air by strong winds in Montreal over the weekend has prompted some equipment rental companies to criticize the absence of oversight for inflatable structures in Quebec.<\/p>\n
Eleven people were injured when a bouncy castle and a tent were tossed by strong winds during a local church event in Montreal\u2019s LaSalle borough on May 31. Environment Canada recorded wind speeds of up to 50 kilometres per hour that day.<\/p>\n
Amusement rides like carousels are subject to the province’s Construction Code and Safety Code and are regulated by Quebec\u2019s R\u00e9gie du b\u00e2timent \u2014 the provincial agency that oversees construction of buildings and other facilities. But inflatable play structures are exempt from the regulator’s jurisdiction.<\/p>\n
Industry representatives in Quebec say the absence of provincial rules leaves safety largely in the hands of rental companies and customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are no laws that we know of,\u201d said Simon Bond, an employee of \u00c9v\u00e9nox, a company that rents event equipment. \u201cThere should probably be some. If there were regulations, it would probably mean there would be fewer accidents.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked why such structures are not regulated, the office of Quebec Labour Minister Jean Boulet, who oversees the provincial regulatory agency, said that \u201cthe law is different from province to province.”<\/p>\n
The regulator did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Boulet’s office also highlighted recommendations from Health Canada, which advises operators of inflatable structures to securely anchor them to the ground to prevent them from moving, tipping over, or lifting into the air.<\/p>\n
Unlike Quebec, Nova Scotia has a regulatory framework for inflatable amusement devices. The province\u2019s Amusement Devices Safety Act covers bouncy castles and similar attractions used at both public functions and private parties.<\/p>\n
The province requires owners to obtain annual licences and operators to complete mandatory training.<\/p>\n
Since 2001, Ontario has required permits for most inflatable amusement devices through the Technical Standards and Safety Authority, including ”bouncy castles, boxing rings with inflated floors and crawl-throughs,” said TSSA communication adviser Gray Chan.<\/p>\n
The regulator exempts bouncy castles used exclusively at private homes, but specifies that churches, schools, and parks are not considered private residences, even during a private event.<\/p>\n
Bond said rental companies can provide equipment and instructions, but cannot ensure customers follow them.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur role is to properly inform our clients of the risks,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe give our clients all the material necessary to properly secure the structure to the ground. We make them sign a waiver, but after that, there\u2019s nothing we can do. We can\u2019t force people to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bond added that companies such as his also face competition from individuals advertising inflatable structures on Facebook Marketplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone can rent inflatable equipment at a lower cost,\u201d he said. In such cases, Bond emphasized that the renters are on their own to determine the safety of the structure.<\/p>\n
A young boy an his mom leave a teddy bear at a makeshift memorial in Parc Ouellette in the Montreal borough of LaSalle on Wednesday, June 3 2026. A three-year-old toddler died of her injuries after a bouncy castle was swept up by strong winds on Sunday. THE CANADIAN PRESS\/Christinne Muschi \u00b7 The Canadian Press <\/p>\n
Cathy Denis, owner of Le Bubble Club, an inflatable-structure rental company in Brownsburg, Que., said her company will not install or operate inflatable attractions when forecast wind speeds exceed 38 kilometres per hour.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbove this speed, the risk of an inflatable structure being destabilized or lifted by gusts increases significantly,\u201d Denis said.<\/p>\n
She explained that inflatable structures are vulnerable to strong wind gusts since they have a large surface area.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if the wind is not strong when you\u2019re installing the structure, a sudden increase in wind gusts can make an inflatable structure unstable and dangerous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Denis said her employees handle the installation of all inflatable structures rented by the company.<\/p>\n
Montreal\u2019s fire department says it has recommendations and requirements related to inflatable structures, but those measures are limited to fire prevention.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe incident in LaSalle had nothing to do with fire safety,\u201d the department\u2019s communications office said.<\/p>\n
The department said that it can recommend inflatable structures be secured according to manufacturers\u2019 instructions, but added that ”we don’t have any regulations related to this in the fire department.”<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 3, 2026.<\/p>\n
Charlotte Glorieux, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A young boy and his mom pay their respects at a makeshift memorial in Parc Ouellette in the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":73353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[29515,29736,29735,29512,50,29737,241,29734,29733,989],"class_list":["post-73352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-bouncy-castle","tag-inflatable-play-structures","tag-inflatable-structure","tag-inflatable-structures","tag-montreal","tag-montreal-borough-of-lasalle","tag-quebec","tag-simon-bond","tag-strong-winds","tag-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}