In an effort to toughen up building inspections in Quebec, the provincial government announced Wednesday it is hoping to pass a new bill that aims to become the strictest building safety law in Canada.
The new law would force landlords to hire their own inspectors and perform pro-active safety checks at regular intervals.
Landlords would also be forced to perform preventive maintenance and report every step of the repair process into a new database.
The database, essentially a safety registry designed to track every one of the 100,000 public-use buildings across Quebec, will allow tenants to check up on buildings' safety records.
The current codes lack teeth, said Labour Minister Lise Theriault.
"When your building is going to be 20 years (old), you have to inspect it. And right now, (there's) nothing like that. It's only (landlords who) have the obligation to make sure your property is safe for people. And that's it," said Theriault.
Theriault said she seeks to hammer out strict rules for the bill. Details of the proposed law have not been negotiated so far.
The move comes after a number of high-profile and deadly incidents in recent years.
Mahamat Saleh Khazali was pinned inside his car by a 60 by 80-foot piece of concrete inside a parking garage in St. Laurent on Nov. 26, 2008. He died by suffocation.
An 800-pound concrete slab fell off the side of a 17th-floor window of the Mariott hotel on Peel St. on July 16, 2009, killing Lea Guilbeault, as she dined at Mikasa restaurant below.
