Progress on fire safety a slow burn: marshal
Posted Jan 12, 2012 07:00:53 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The Office of the Fire Marshal is making progress towards meeting all of the recommendations contained last year’s auditor general’s report.
In May 2011, Auditor General Jacques Lapointe highlighted a list of problems with the service. Fire inspections were rarely conducted on schools and other buildings, and there was an ineffective method of tracking the inspections or arranging follow-up reviews.
The auditor outlined 25 recommendations to improve the service.
Deputy Labour Minister Jeff Conrad tells Global News the office has met six of those recommendations and a plan is in place to resolve the remaining problems within two years.
“We’re dealing with the elementary schools at this juncture,” Conrad said. “There’s 131 elementary schools and we’re well over 50 per cent that have been inspected.”
In the past eight months since the report’s release, the province has added $330,000 to the annual budget of $2 million.
Lapointe says he’s happy with the progress.
“The actions they’re taking to deal with the recommendations are really quite commendable,” he said. “They’re doing what has to be done to make this happen and they seem to be committed to it. And it’s pretty serious stuff too; it’s not like my recommendations were minor.”
