Iqaluit and other communities to share fire, building inspector

GREG YOUNGER-LEWIS

Iqaluit’s pending budget is expected to contain a simple yet important addition to the city’s administrative ranks – someone to ensure buildings don’t fall down or go up in flames.

And that “someone” will likely work in other Baffin communities as well, if not the entire territory.

As Iqaluit’s council prepares its budget for the coming year, the city’s fire chief is vying for money to hire the city’s first fire and building inspector. Pre-budget discussions with the Government of Nunavut suggest the inspector would also travel to other communities.

Cory Chegwyn, Iqaluit’s fire chief, said the city needs an inspector to ensure that developers are following building and fire regulations, and that fire regulations aren’t being violated after residents or workers start using the buildings.

Chegwyn, who said he’s been lobbying for a fire and building inspector for nine years, said his staff currently do inspections, but are too busy to check on the standards of every building before and after it’s constructed.

“In the past, there hasn’t really been anybody to look at building construction and ensure that it’s done right in the first place,” Chegwyn said in an interview. “If it’s not done right in the first place, it’s really hard for us as fire inspectors to go in and address those issues [such as poor construction] after the building is built and … everybody’s moved in.”

The inspector’s position was first mentioned publicly at the Nov. 26 council meeting, when a councillor questioned how administration was making sure that contractors were sticking to their proposed building plans.

In fact, the city currently has no way of policing contractors to ensure they do follow their original designs. However, the city’s top administrator said the upcoming budget would fix that.

Ian Fremantle, Iqaluit’s chief administrative officer, told council that money had been found in the budget to finally hire an inspector – a position that most tax-based communities like Iqaluit have.

Fremantle said talks were still ongoing with the Government of Nunavut, which is poised to share the cost of hiring an inspector, and split the inspector’s time between the capital city and surrounding communities.

Hiring an inspector could reassure anxious parents that schools in Iqaluit will be safe from future fires unrelated to arson.

Shortly after a fire burned Joamie School to the ground on July 4, Chegwyn ruled out arson, but pointed to a faulty sprinkler system as a factor in the fire.

Chegwyn declined to comment on whether having a fire inspector might have prevented the fire. Only two of 100 sprinkler heads were working on the day of the Joamie School fire, according to Chegwyn’s initial investigation.

“It couldn’t have hurt,” Chegwyn said of having a fire inspector before the school burnt down. “As far as would it have [helped], I’m going to have to wait and see what the final report has to say on it.”

The final report on the Joamie fire is expected before Dec. 25.

In addition to Iqaluit’s inspector, the Government of Nunavut is looking to bolster its own ranks. The government already has three assistant fire marshals who inspect new buildings in the territory, and they may soon be joined by a fourth.

Tom Rich, deputy minister for community government and transportation, said his department is interested in sharing the cost of Iqaluit’s new building and fire inspector, and confirmed the inspector would work in other communities, mainly in the Baffin region.

Rich emphasized that the absence of a building and fire inspector until now, does not mean that standards have not been enforced. Rich said his department needs more inspectors because of the growing workload from an increasing amount of construction in the territory.

“Buildings aren’t opened until they are inspected,” Rich said. “This [hiring a new inspector] allows us to do [inspections] in … a more timely fashion.”

City officials hope to hire the new inspector by February, but said the exact cost of the hiring can’t be released before the council meeting on Dec. 9, the last scheduled meeting this year.