Residents sit outside a private seniors’ residence (RPA) in Montreal on Jan. 4, 2024. Opposition politicians in the city are demanding full disclosure on fire safety at such facilities.Evan Buhler/The Globe and Mail
Montreal opposition leaders will table a motion next week requesting that the fire department disclose details on private seniors’ residences that are non-compliant with fire-safety regulations after The Globe and Mail revealed last month that dozens have violated the rules without legal consequences.
Private seniors’ residences, commonly known in Quebec by the French acronym RPAs, are accommodations for independent or semi-independent elderly people that offer services such as meals and nursing care. They are managed by private operators but certified by local health authorities.
“Owners and managers of seniors’ residences must comply with the established rules,” said Abdelhaq Sari, public-security spokesperson for Ensemble Montréal, the opposition party at city hall, in a video posted on social media announcing the move.
Mr. Sari will present a motion during Monday’s municipal council meeting for the fire department to disclose “a complete portrait of the level of progress of RPA compliance” some time this year.
The presentation should include the percentage of non-compliant RPAs, the number of fire-safety-related fines issued, a review of follow-ups to infractions and details of evacuation drills, the motion says. It also asks the fire department to present “its guidelines with a view to revising its new risk coverage plan” for the city, which has not been updated since 2008.
Quebec defines a risk coverage plan as “a planning process to ensure the fire safety of an area and plan interventions.” The province requires that they be updated every five years.
Mr. Sari’s motion refers to a Globe report published last month, which found that more than a quarter of Montreal RPAs were not in compliance with fire-safety requirements in 2023, such as up-to-date alarm systems and sprinklers. Yet only a fraction were facing judicial proceedings.
The Canadian Press also found last month that a quarter of all RPAs in the province are still struggling to comply with a requirement to install sprinklers a decade after a fire killed 32 people in a seniors’ residence in the municipality of L’Isle-Verte.
Seniors aged 65 years and older have the highest rate of fire-related deaths, according to Statistics Canada. Mobility limitations impeding quick evacuation mean proper planning and safety standards are crucial to saving lives, says a 2021 Quebec government fire safety guide for managers of seniors’ homes.
Out of 187 Montreal RPAs, 49 had non-compliant means of evacuation. Only six of those residences were facing judicial proceedings, according to internal fire-department documents.
Fire-safety infractions can result in fines and remedial orders such as the obligation for property owners to install additional equipment, conduct work, or evacuate the premises.
A similar pattern emerged in other fire-prevention areas: 42 RPAs had non-compliant alarm systems, 26 had non-compliant sprinklers, and 24 had non-compliant fire-safety plans.
But only three residences were facing judicial proceedings related to the sprinklers, and seven for non-compliant alarm systems. None were facing any consequences for having non-compliant fire-safety plans.
Such plans – which are required in a variety of places including hospitals, schools, movie theatres, detention centres and some office and residential towers – detail evacuation procedures and other emergency measures.
The Globe previously reported that the Montreal fire department had suspended several prevention activities for years, including investigating non-compliant means of evacuation and validating most fire-safety plans. These revelations occurred in the aftermath of a fatal blaze in the city’s historic district, where lax enforcement allegedly contributed to the deaths of seven people. The Globe reporting put the fire department under the spotlight and multiple lawsuits against the city followed.
City of Montreal spokesperson Gonzalo Nunez said last month that he was not able to provide an updated table of non-compliant RPAs, but that the fire department “follows up on each of the files submitted and takes appropriate measures to ensure a return to compliance.”
At a city council meeting on Jan. 23, Mr. Sari asked Alain Vaillancourt, responsible for public security on Montreal’s executive committee, about the number of non-compliant RPAs. Mr. Vaillancourt said he did not have the numbers.
Simon Charron, a spokesperson for Montreal Mayor Valérie Plante, said Wednesday that the administration would not comment on the motion before it is tabled.