Ottawa police and paramedics recover the body of a drowning victim on Petrie Island in the Ottawa River on Victoria Day. (Pawel Dwulit/Canadian Press)

Two more drownings in Ontario make it at least 13 people who have lost their lives in the province's pools, lakes and rivers this summer.

The latest deaths happened on Saturday.

Bun Chang Tang, 31, died in the Nottawasaga River, at Wasaga Beach. Provincial police say he was running to catch a ball and slipped under the water.

In spite of an extensive search it was several hours until his body was found.

Also on Saturday, an 84-year-old man drowned near Gravenhurst.

George Herczeg of Toronto had gone for a swim in the afternoon and failed to return. His body was found in shallow waters.

The deaths are the latest in a long list of drownings, including 24-year-old Casimir Macedonie of Ottawa, who died in the Ottawa River on the May 24 weekend.

There has also been a spate of drownings at unsupervised pools in Ontario.

Two 14-year-old boys drowned in an apartment pool in the city's east end on June 30.

Less than a week later, a 12-year-old boy was pronounced dead after being pulled from a hotel pool, and on July 6 a 13-year-old boy drowned in a backyard pool in Bradford, just north of Toronto.

None of the pools had a lifeguard.

Barbara Byers, spokesperson for the Royal Lifesaving Society of Canada, told CBC News earlier this week that hotel and condominium pools must comply with all public safety rules, with the exception of providing lifeguards.

"The safest place to swim is in a lifeguard-supervised area," said Byers.

In the past 20 years, Byers said, less than one per cent of all drownings in Canada have happened in areas where there are lifeguards.

'Need to increase safety'

Earlier this week the province said it would beef up pool safety regulations. "We acknowledge there is a need to increase safety measures," said health ministry spokesperson Andrew Morrison.

Byers says the review is a positive step but "condos, apartments, hotels [must be convinced] that it's well worth their investment to hire lifeguards."

The Canadian Red Cross estimates there are about 500 drowning deaths in Canada each year.

In Ontario, many of the deaths so far this summer have happened in lakes and rivers. Police and water safety experts point again to simple solutions: life jackets and swimming lessons.

On June 29, a father and his five-year-old son drowned in Lake Huron.

A 13-year-old teen from Mississauga died on the Canada Day long weekend in the Trent River, near Campbellford, when he fell out of a boat. He wasn't wearing a life jacket.

On Monday a 39-year-old Toronto father died in the waters of Lake Dalrymple, near Orillia, but the man's five-year-old and 11-year-old sons were found alive, floating in their life jackets.

According to Byers "the majority of people that drown in Canada are adults, and adults are very unlikely to enroll in swimming lessons."

She says the best way to cut down on drowning deaths is for parents and children to take swimming lessons.