Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In follow-up to my Member’s statement today, I have questions for the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs. Back in November my colleague Mr. Dolynny made a very good statement on this very same topic. I believe that since then, the report of the unfortunate and tragic incident that took place in the Yukon has progressed further, and their government, the Yukon Government, is looking at putting in place measures to avoid this very preventable loss in the future.
I’d like to ask the Minister what our government has done to date to address the issue of carbon monoxide detectors in buildings in the Northwest Territories.
Thank you, Mrs. Groenewegen. The honourable Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. Robert McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The National Building Code requires that all structures built from 2008 now have to have CO2 detectors. Any structures built prior to then, it wasn’t a requirement at the time. However, with the incidents that took place in the Yukon I think there are a lot of people who are starting to install CO2 detectors.
The department, working with the NWT Fire Chiefs Association, had a very good awareness campaign and I believe they were even handing out free detectors to those who wanted them. We are trying to raise public awareness. There are some requirements for it in the National Building Code to have these installed after 2008.
That is very good news, both the mandatory installation in public buildings, the public awareness campaign, and the handing out of carbon monoxide detectors. The potential problem is all too prevalent in our residences.
I’d like to ask the Minister if there’s anything that our government could do further to step up the efforts to ensure that people have access to these detectors in their homes. I understand that they are not that expensive, and in our communities they are probably not readily available in some of the small communities in stores. Is this government prepared to go further with this?
I can assure the Member, and all Members of the House, that we will do whatever it takes to try and ensure that all our residents across the Northwest Territories are covered. The National Building Code that I pointed out before does apply to residents also. That protection is there. We are monitoring the legislation that the Yukon is planning to enact and see if there’s opportunity for us to enact the same type of legislation. We’re monitoring that quite closely. Once that’s all done, we will have discussions with committee and Members of the Assembly.
That is very good to know. Is there anything that we as a government could do legislation-wise? New construction I understand. What about existing homes? Is there anything we can do, from a regulation and monitoring perspective, to ensure that people have carbon monoxide detectors in their homes?
Other than trying to wear public awareness and that, I suppose we would have to look at trying to work out some regulations. I do note that if they are renovating a home that was built prior to 2008, then the new requirements would take place where they need to install a CO2 detector. If renovations are being done, then it would be mandatory to install CO2 detectors.
Again, I can assure all Members that we will do whatever we can to ensure all members of the public are aware of the dangers of carbon monoxide and work with the public in any way that we can. If it means handing out CO2 detectors, then we would have to explore that also.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final supplementary, Mrs. Groenewegen.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I for one would strongly support handing out these. We take a lot of measures, as a government, to address public safety, everything from making sure we wear our seatbelts and our kids wear seatbelts. We do a lot of things by regulation and by law to ensure public safety. I would like to see us address this and would certainly support an allocation of funding to purchase carbon monoxide detectors and give them out to anybody who would be interested.
We appreciate the Member’s support and look forward to working with all Members to try and raise awareness out there. I think the event that took place in Whitehorse, unfortunately, was a sad way to make the public aware of the danger to carbon monoxide detectors. I do know our NWT Fire Chiefs Association is working very hard on this issue because they recognize the importance of it too. I think, in partnership with all the stakeholders, we’re doing all we can to make sure our public is well protected.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. The honourable Member for Frame Lake, Ms. Bisaro.
