More inspectors needed to meet demand, building chief says
The City of Ottawa's chief building official (CBO) wants to hire 12 new full-time employees to help his overburdened department meet its deadlines to inspect new buildings and make sure they're safe to occupy.
The department is responsible for inspecting all new buildings including homes and businesses to make sure they meet the Ontario Building Code, which sets the minimum standards for health and safety.
In recent years the city has been short on inspectors, and has had a hard time meeting its legal deadlines to carry out inspections.
In April, city council learned the department had eight vacancies for building inspectors, or about 10 per cent of the workforce tasked with ensuring buildings are safe.
The vacancies sparked concerns from councillors and advocates over the quality of inspections and the safety of new buildings.
Number of inspectors haven't increased since 2012
If approved, the added staff will be long overdue, according to Karen Somerville, the president of Canadians for Properly Built homes.
"We hear from people regularly in Ottawa and beyond about newly built homes that people purchase, only to find that once they get in that there are code violations," Somerville said.
"This is a very serious situation as it can impact the safety of the occupants of the home."
Staff levels for the department haven't been adjusted since 2012, even as the need for inspections has increased from 95,000 in 2015 to more than 107,000 in 2017.
At the same time, the frequency with which city inspectors met their legal deadlines plunged from 90 per cent in 2015 to just 64 per cent in 2017.
Staff are working overtime to make up the difference, but it's not sustainable, according to a new report by CBO Frank Bidin, which will be presented to the city's planning committee next week.
Inspections more complicated
The new hires are expected to cost about $1 million per year, with their salaries covered by revenue from building permits.
This isn't the first time the city has tried to fill the vacancies. In the spring, the general manager of the city's planning department warned of a province-wide shortage.
The pressure on the department has only gotten worse as the work gets more complicated, according to Bidin's report.
The Ontario Building Code was beefed up over the last four years to improve fire safety, environmental protection, resource conservation and accessibility, but that makes the permit and inspection process longer and more complicated.
The city isn't expecting new building construction to slow anytime soon, especially as light rail and other infrastructure projects come online.
Canadians for Better Built Homes has called for the city not to issue any new building permits until the appropriate number of experienced inspectors are in place to make sure they are safe.
The city's planning committee will vote on the new hires next week.
