Elderly residence certification on the rise

February 22, 2012

In the City of Sherbrooke 34 of 54 elderly residences, or 63 per cent of these residences, are safety certified, up from 15 per cent less than one year ago according to a report presented to the city council Monday night.
“The good news that I have for you tonight is that, as of the most recent report, we have reached 63 per cent of residences certified on the Sherbrooke territory,” Gaétan Drouin, director of the Sherbrooke Fire Protection Services (SPIS), told councillors.
It has been five years since the provincial government requested inspections and certifications of the elderly residences, and Sherbrooke had long lagged behind other major cities in Quebec until recently.
Drouin attributed this to the city’s desire to clarify the regulations and certification system, which he felt was far too complicated and differed from city to city.
“In certain large cities of Quebec, (residences) were certified directly by the health and social services agency without a fire prevention inspector even having the chance to go do a drill or an evaluation of the building,” he explained.
Consequently, the city council mandated the SPIS to make an effort to work with the province and create some cohesion between the cities on the certification process, to make the certification guide simpler for the operators of these residences to understand, and to encourage discussion between all the involved bodies: the health and social services agency, the department of housing of Quebec, the department of public safety, the chiefs of fire safety of Quebec and the Quebec regrouping of residences for the elderly.
“As I said before, the first certifications in certain cities were done a bit quickly. While we in Sherbrooke, [...] believe that the energy put into the provincial scene, as requested by the municipal council, made so that now the groups are talking; all the groups are advancing at the same time,” Drouin said. “And currently what we see is that day by day our percentage improves for certification.”

The story Thursday in The Record