Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Presently the Office of the Fire Marshal's industry guidelines set out that the Office of the Fire Marshal can't act in the capacity of an engineering or architectural consultant or else the plan review function would be in a conflict. This is a fair rule, but it seems the Office of the Fire Marshal has taken a very strict interpretation of this whereby they won't give anyone any advice on the interpretation they'll take of the building code. The default response seems to be, go hire a code consultant, which is often thousands of dollars, to a southern consulting firm, and delays projects by a matter of weeks.
My question for the Minister is I don't know how to get rid of this very strict interpretation of their own guidelines but will the Minister at least set out some service standards that the fire marshal has to respond to their emails in a timely manner, has to answer questions about how they will interpret the code, and you know, maybe even that service standard could set out how long it takes to go through the plan review function. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. To date, I haven't received any complaints about the fire marshal's office and the responses that have been supposed to be received. But I will follow up with the department. And also that, you know, the other thing that MACA is under review right now looking at our Fire Prevention Act, and it's very unclear for the Northwest Territories looking at the building code. I know the Member has brought this issue up several times but this is something that my department is currently working on. And looking at the client service standards for the Office of the Fire Marshal, I will bring that back to the department and we will take a look and a review on that as well too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Another issue is presently the Office of the Fire Marshal has taken the position that they will not review any documents unless they are released for construction or final drawings. And the problem with this, Mr. Speaker, is that everyone else and along the process is the contractors GNWT has hired, the procurement we've lined up, all of our capital budget has worked together to get final construction documents. And then those documents are sent to the fire marshal, and it becomes this black hole before any work can start. And, Mr. Speaker, architects are willing to work in draft documents before they stamp them because they change the fundamental nature of the project if the fire marshal's going to make a change. And for some reason, due to that fear of the Office of the Fire Marshal becoming consultant, they will look at nothing but the absolute final documents when already thousands and thousands of dollars have been spent. I know this is delaying all of our GNWT projects. So my question is will the Minister change the guidelines and require the Office of the Fire Marshal to review draft documents first, just like everyone else involved in the building process? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Office of the Fire Marshal and looking at the draft documents that have to be reviewed prior to the construction for the Northwest Territories, this is, you know, been brought up to my department several times. But I will bring this back to my department as well because of you know, we do have a number of construction projects that are happening right now. We do have one of their regions as well, too, we're down one fire marshal as well and this is quite concerning to the department. So I will have to follow up with the Member. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Yes, thank you, Mr. Speaker. I suspect I would ask the Minister to also look at the capacity. I suspect the Office of the Fire Marshal is overworked. I suspect the GNWT capital budget requires them to review far too many plans and they could probably use some more staff, which I would fully support. And along that, perhaps a staff member could create some bulletins, some guidelines on the code interpretation. Right now, there are only three advisories on how the Office of the Fire Marshal will interpret the code. The last one was in 2016, Mr. Speaker. Despite the fact that the Office of the Fire Marshal is making hundreds of decisions on code interpretations, decisions that end up in court. And once a decision is made, there's no transparency for the next builder to know what the code interpretation actually was. So my question for the Minister is: will the Minister direct the Office of the Fire Marshal to create some bulletins and provide guidance on how they interpret the National Building Code that creates a transparent process so we're not restarting for every single project? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Once again, I will bring this back to my department as well to because looking at the 2014 bulletin that was provided to the general public and also that was to be maintained, and as we worked with the Department of Infrastructure as well too, but it's this is something that we need to work within our department. So I will get back to the Member and look at the bulletin as well too. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you. As I've stated many times, every other jurisdiction in Canada has a Building Code Act. The work that our fire marshal is conducting is not inherent to the offices of fire marshals. Fire marshals are for training firefighters, for providing fire safety. They are not always code compliance officers. That usually lies with building inspectors under building code acts and those acts appeal to an independent body. Nunavut's Building Code Act, for example, has an advisory council made up of experts who hear building code appeals. In NWT, those go to the Minister, Mr. Speaker. I don't believe the Minister is an expert in building codes. Mr. Speaker, so my question for the Minister is will we create an appeal mechanism for decisions of the Office of the Fire Marshal to an independent body? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. The Fire Prevention Act is under review by Municipal and Community Affairs. And the comprehensive work is being conducted as well. And we need to find a mechanism as well, too, that would best suit and be in compliance for the Northwest Territories and for the needs of the construction that is happening in the territory. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Oral questions. Member for Frame Lake.
