Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I’d like to follow up on some questions that were asked by my colleague Mr. Dolynny yesterday. He asked some questions of the Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs with regard to safety within our buildings.
I share Mr. Dolynny’s concerns about home safety, about construction of homes, installation of furnaces and so on. I feel, I think as he does, that the NWT lacks adequate inspection capabilities.
My first question to the Minister is: What building codes or what building standards exist in the NWT to guide construction? Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Bisaro. Minister of Municipal and Community Affairs, Mr. McLeod.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The National Building Code of Canada guides construction in the Northwest Territories, where all buildings built in the Northwest Territories have to be code compliant and they have to follow the National Building Code. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister for that clarification. I realize that we are following the National Building Code, but my concern lies more with enforcement. It was my understanding that the Minister, yesterday, said we really don’t have any enforcement capabilities. I’d like to ask the Minister if he can advise that if I as a private homeowner am building a house, who inspects the construction of my home to ensure that it conforms to the Canada building standards. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it depends on what part of the territory you live in. In a place like Yellowknife, for example, and some of the larger communities that do have community building inspectors, when you’re building a home you would have to get a building permit from them, they would review the plans, and then once your home is completed, they would inspect it to ensure that you conform to all local building practices and the National Building Code. Thank you.
Thanks to the Minister. As the Minister points out, it’s all well and good if I’m building my home in Yellowknife because there are building inspectors here who do do that service here. But if I am in a community outside of Yellowknife or outside or in any community that does not have a building inspector, what am I to do? How am I to know that the building that is being constructed is safe and it has conformed to the Canada Building Code? I’d like to ask the Minister that. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, that’s a question that we’ve had a number of times in the past from some of the communities out there. They’ve asked about building inspection services…
---Technical difficulties
Start over? Right from the start?
Mr. Speaker, that is a question that we’ve had a number of times before from those regions outside that are not covered by a municipal building inspector, and it’s one that we continue to look at.
If you’re building in a small community, obviously if it’s a house, that’s through one of the NWT housing programs, we have project officers that would inspect the building to ensure that it conforms to code. However, if you’re self-financing this or financing it through the bank, I’m not quite sure yet – I’d have to check on that – but I’m sure there would be a requirement to have the building inspected and conform to code for insurance purposes. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Final, short supplementary, Ms. Bisaro.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Thanks to the Minister again. I think the Minister is agreeing with me that we don’t have the capability to do the kind of inspections of buildings that we should. I want to ask the Minister whether or not there’s a possibility that we can look at this seriously. The subject has been raised a number of times. Can we seriously look at providing those services, particularly where we have no building inspectors in our communities, and maybe we should consider having a Minister who is responsible for our building standards and building codes. Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, again, that is a question we do get a lot. It’s one that I think, as a department, we would have to explore to see… Well, we’d have to weigh everything, the finances and all the other things that go with it.
I will commit to the Member that as a department we will have a look at this, and we’ll do a bit of research as to what areas are covered, what’s not covered. I know for commercial buildings they’re pretty well covered. I know for houses, through the NWT Housing Corp, inspection is covered. However, we do have very few private homes going up into the smaller non-market communities. So there’s a bit of a gap there and we’ll have to do some research. I will commit to reporting my finds to the members of the committee. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. McLeod. Member for Nahendeh, Mr. Menicoche.
