Nearly four weeks after a concrete slab fell off a building and killed a woman, Montreal's mayor is demanding the owners of the Marriott Hotel on Peel St. hand in a delayed inspection report.

The document was due July 21st but now the company that owns the building says it does not know when its inspectors will finish the document.

Mayor Gerald Tremblay says he is putting pressure on the firm to provide the report promptly.

Peel between Sherbrooke and de Maisonneuve has been cordoned off since the tragic accident that saw 33-year-old Lea Guilbeault killed on July 17 while dining with her partner in a ground-level sushi restaurant.

Tremblay says he can't approve re-opening the section of Peel street until he sees a report.

"Now, what we have to do is the diagnosis of the building," he said Sunday.

"Is it safe or is it not safe? I think that doesn't take years to find out.

"If it is safe then we can do something. But if we don't get that report it's very difficult."

Passing the buck

The Marriott Hotel was last examined in 2000, and the agency that inspects Quebec buildings says it will continue to examine buildings only when it receives complaints.

That is the same excuse the Regie du batiment provided last year, when an indoor garage collapsed in St. Laurent and killed a man.

The union representing public-sector employees blames the tragedies on a declining number of in-the-field inspections.

It claims they went from 55,300 in 2003 to 13,500 last year.

The board claims inspections are the responsibility of the owners, and not the province.

A number of restaurant owners in the area feel the investigation is taking too long, and they are losing business as a result.

No political will

Despite the litany of structural failures, the city of Montreal does not see any need to change how buildings are inspected.

Last month Claude Dauphin, president of Montreal's executive committee, said "I'm not against new bylaws but unfortunately sometimes it takes a catastrophe like that to react."

Dauphin said that for now, the city will continue to depend on the Regie to inspect buildings.