Toronto should open up its community pools to ensure that every child can swim by Grade 5, mayoral candidate George Smitherman proposed Friday, just before another boy was pulled from a city-area pool with no vital signs.

Smitherman said making sure every kid can swim is the best way to prevent tragedies like Wednesday's drowning of two 14-year-old boys in a pool at a Scarborough condo building.

"In the summertime, a lot of kids are swimming in swimming pools in the yards of condominiums and in the yards of rental accommodation. I think it's well within our means to deliver programming to them in those environments," he said.

"Wherever we find a pool, and wherever we find kids that are in those pools, we should find the capacity to deliver program to them."

On Friday afternoon, a boy was plucked from the pool at the Toronto Don Valley Hotel at Eglinton Avenue and the Don Valley Parkway. He was taken to hospital with no vital signs and died Saturday. Another child taken out of the pool was conscious and mobile.

Smitherman says it would be too expensive to make sure there is a lifeguard on duty at every pool — including those in condos.

The swimming-lessons pitch is part of a plan Smitherman released Friday to transform Toronto's schools into community hubs, offering a broad range of government services including daycare, recreation facilities and libraries.

Josh Matlow, a Ward 22 candidate for city council and veteran school board trustee, expressed doubts about the plan.

"Who is going to put up their hands and say that they're going to fund it?" he questioned. "Always, it always comes down to that."