Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As mentioned earlier today in my Member’s statement, the Yukon government is making carbon monoxide detectors mandatory. However, I pointed out that, in reality, the GNWT needs to invest more in public awareness and standardization of regulations for all oil-fired and wood use appliances throughout the NWT.
My questions today will be for the Minister responsible for such a topic, the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. It’s clear biomass is on the rise in almost every community of the NWT. As I mentioned today, there are no regulations to support the installation of wood pellet stoves in 31 of our 33 communities. As well, many wood stoves are not compliant or meet safety codes and there is no established inspection process.
Can the Minister indicate to the House today by what means his department is using to monitor the safety, installation and inspection of wood and pellet stoves in most communities?
Thank you, Mr. Dolynny. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. As far as inspecting them, we don’t have an inspection regime, and it is one we have been exploring the possibilities of. People are able to have them inspected by wet-certified inspectors. The numbers are starting to go up as far as those that are certified to inspect the installation of wood stoves. It is a very tricky subject because there is a lot of liability to it. They are unable to see the full installation unless it’s new construction, so existing wood stoves are very difficult to see. They wouldn’t be able to qualify for home insurance if they’re not inspected by a wet-certified inspector.
Public awareness is by far lacking in the NWT as it pertains to carbon monoxide detector use. I would be safe to bet that a large percentage of residents do not have one, yet at a mere $40, this unit is a cheap investment for one’s safety. Can the Minister indicate how much money is spent annually on public awareness campaigns to educate the public on carbon monoxide detector use, and will he commit to increase this amount?
As far as the actual budget amount to help with the awareness, I’m not sure of the actual budget amount. I could get some numbers for the Member. I do know that through the fire marshal’s office they had a very good awareness program. They were actually giving away carbon monoxide detectors to those that needed them.
On the housing side of it, I know that in all the public housing units they’ve spent a considerable amount of money ensuring that all our public housing units have carbon monoxide detectors that are up to code. Any new construction now, I think since 2005, is required to have carbon monoxide detectors in their units.
The installation of all wood and pellet stoves within most of our communities is not regulated. Will the Minister commit today in this House to immediately mandate the much needed regulations with his department, with the community fire marshals, and with various community government stakeholders in standardizing all our communities for compliance, safety codes and inspection process for all oil-fired and wood use appliances?
I can commit to the Member that I will do some exploratory work and see how we can advance this. I do know that a lot of those folks that are building $300,000 to $400,000 homes, it will be to their benefit to make sure that all installations meet code, otherwise they may not qualify for insurance. But I will commit to the Member that I’ll just start some exploratory work and see how we can best advance this issue.
I can say that we are acting now, and we’re not ignoring the fact that these are very important components in each home, and I think that was my response to a couple of the questions before. I think we’re proving that our commitment to ensuring that all homes in the Northwest Territories are safe and have a working carbon monoxide detector.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Mr. Dolynny.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Finally, as a follow-up to a question I asked earlier this spring on carbon monoxide detector use in our local housing authority branches. We were informed back then by the Minister that all LHOs were compliant with carbon monoxide detector use. Could the Minister agree to table to this House a complete inventory of all NWT LHO housing and building inventory by region, with more specific information to carbon monoxide detectors, and more specifically, installation date, inspection date and expected replacement date.
I have said that all our public housing units are compliant. We’ve spent a considerable amount of money. We’ve installed carbon monoxide detectors in well over 1,300 units, because we have a lot of multiple family-type dwellings. They’re all compliant. But if the Member wants all this in writing we will assign someone to put all this information together and we will share it with the Members. Not only that, if that’s not good enough, then we’ll table it in the House so everybody across the Northwest Territories knows that what I said here today is the absolute truth.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The Member for Inuvik Boot Lake, Mr. Moses.
