Months after a slab of cement came crashing down 18 floors onto a Montreal restaurant killing 33-year-old Léa Guilbeault, the Quebec government is revamping the province's building code to prevent such a horrific accident from ever happening again.
Under proposed legislation, owners would be required to define and follow a preventive maintenance and repair program for their buildings. The bill also would require owners to hire professional inspectors and keep all inspection reports during the life of the building.
"Those being targeted are the ones that are negligent. We don't want another accident like this to happen again," Michel Beaudoin, head of the province's building inspection board said, referring to Ms. Guilbeault's death.
The new law would cover all private buildings that are more than three stories high and residential buildings with more than nine apartments. It also covers the more than 107,000 publicly owned buildings across the province.
Labour Minister Lise Thériault said it is urgent to review the antiquated building code and impose higher safety standards. But she remained vague about whether inspections would be more frequent under the new law.
"A lot depends on the age of the buildings and the standards that were in place when they were built," Ms. Thériault said. "I can assure you though, that from now on owners will be held accountable … We will make sure that maintenance and repairs are done."
It is still unclear why a massive decorative panel suddenly dislocated from the Marriott Residence Inn in July, 2009, and crashed into the atrium where Ms. Guilbeault was dining with her husband.
The minister said she is waiting for coroner Jacques Ramsay's report and recommendations before confirming speculation that corrosion of the panel's steel anchors or other structural problems caused the accident.
The high-rise, which was built in 1979, hadn't been inspected in nine years. The province's public sector union said a lack of inspections has placed a number of buildings at risk, adding that the proposed changes to the law would do little to eliminate the hazards if the province fails to increase the number of inspections.
"You can have all the best laws you want, but if they aren't enforced, they don't mean anything," said Lucie Martineau, president of Quebec's civil service union.
Ms. Martineau welcomed the proposed preventive measures but said they have to be followed by adequate inspections. "If all you do is ask owners if they have a preventive maintenance and repair plan but you don't follow up with inspections, the situation is not going to get any better," she said.
The union has compiled statistics to show that since 2000, there has been a drop of 80 per cent in the number of yearly inspections conducted on buildings in the province. The union claimed that the key to avoiding further accidents lies in the government's will to conduct spot inspections to detect structural deterioration.
In 2008, an underground parking garage collapsed, killing a courier service employee. After that incident, the province's building inspectors received numerous complaints about similar unsafe structures.
Ms. Thériault said her government has no plans to increase the number of building inspectors, saying that municipalities, fire departments and other local authorities will be asked to help enforce the mandatory preventive measures in the bill.