Auditor General: Nunavut ignoring poor fire safety in schools, daycares

In an undated file photo, Nakasuk School students head home for the day. A report by the Auditor General of Canada, tabled Nov. 19, found an alarming number of fire safety deficiencies in Nunavut schools and daycare centres. (FILE PHOTO)

The Government of Nunavut does not do enough fire safety inspections on schools and daycare centres and takes little action on those that are done, the Auditor General of Canada found in a report tabled in the legislative assembly Nov. 19.

“We concluded that the Government of Nunavut’s Department of Education and its Department of Community and Government Services have not complied with their key responsibilities related to the safety of schools and childcare facilities,” the report said.

The auditor general’s office said what they found was so bad, they wrote a warning letter to the deputy ministers of Education and CGS in June 2013.

“Our aim was to raise concerns requiring immediate attention regarding inspections in schools and childcare facilities,” the report said.

“We also sought to provide to the departments an early opportunity to take the necessary actions, with the aim of ensuring that their obligations were properly addressed.”

Ronnie Campbell, an assistant auditor general who travelled to Iqaluit for tabling of the school safety report and another report on the Department of Education, said GN officials appear to be taking the findings seriously.

Campbell and Auditor General Michael Ferguson will return to Iqaluit during the first week of April 2014 to discuss the report with MLAs sitting on the assembly’s standing committee on government operations and accountability.

The report’s findings will give MLAs much to think about.

On daycares, for example:

• the Department of Community Government Services does not do childcare fire inspections in accordance with its own procedures;

• CGS did required fire inspections of childcare centres only about a third of the time and the AG’s audit found two where no fire inspections were done for three years;

• the few fire inspections that were done found blocked exits, improper storage of combustibles and inadequate numbers of smoke detectors;

• CGS fire inspection reports do not state who is responsible for fixing deficiencies and no follow-ups are done;

• the GN Department of Education gave “letters of permission” that allow uninspected, unlicenced daycare centres to operate — the GN said they’ve now stopped doing that;

• the Department of Education does not have the authority to issue such letters and has no policies or directives defining the practice;

• of 35 daycares, 33 at some point operated without a valid licence, in violation of the Child Care Act;

• of the childcare centres inspected by the AG, 40 per cent had not met the criminal record check requirement and 48 per cent did not meet the requirement for staff to hold First Aid certificates; and,

• the GN’s early childhood workers do not get training or guidance on how to do their jobs, and end up producing faulty inspection reports.

On safety inside Nunavut schools, the auditor general’s findings aren’t any better.

For example, the auditor general found critical safety tests of things like fire alarms are either not done or not documented.

This means the Nunavut Fire Marshall can’t rely on these tests when doing inspections.

“This situation jeopardizes the safety of students and staff. Further, the Department of Community and Government Services is not aware of potential risks within Nunavut schools.”

Other examples:

• school principals are not performing the required numbers of emergency evacuation drills;

• fire inspections in schools must be done twice a year, but the auditor general’s staff found this was done in only five of eight schools they audited;

• the Fire Marshall’s inspection reports do not state who is responsible for fixing deficiencies in schools and follow-ups are not done;

• fire inspections reveal repeated numerous examples of safety deficiencies that are not corrected;

• in one school, doors that should have been closed for safety reasons were identified as a safety risk nine times without the problem being corrected;

• the CGS department could not provide evidence that monthly fire alarm tests in schools are done as required;

• of the eight schools they audited, the auditor general found none had received annual boiler and electrical inspections;

• the CGS department stopped doing mandatory boiler and electrical inspections in schools because it had to redirect staff towards doing mandatory inspections of new social housing;

• many other deficiencies, including missing or empty fire extinguishers;

• the GN doesn’t seem to know which of the two departments, Education and CGS, is responsible for fixing safety deficiencies; and,

• school principals receive little information from CGS about work they’ve performed.

Readers may download copies of the two Auditor General of Canada reports by following links at this page on the auditor general’s website.