“Isn’t that what their job is?”

By Graeme McNaughton/The Oshawa Express

The region is following through on a commitment to put carbon monoxide detectors in many of its facilities.

According to a report presented to the region’s works committee, there are plans to install devices in 105 different locations at a cost of $164,000, including contingency funding. Of that, approximately $35,000 will go toward purchasing the detectors, and another $128,000 will go toward installing them.

The report budgets $250 for each device, and an additional $800 for the installation of each unit, which will be hardwired into the building’s electrical lines. However, installation costs for long-term care homes and at regional headquarters will cost as much as $1,500 per unit, according to the report.

Cliff Curtis addressed the concern of some councillors as to why the cost was so high for installation, saying that the hard wiring adds to the costs.

“You can’t do anything for much less than $1,000,” he added.

Speaking to the Oshawa Express, Robert Adamsz, facilities maintenance and operations manager with the region, says another reason for the added costs is that these carbon monoxide detectors are more advanced than the ones you can pick up at the hardware store.

“It’s a big difference between a carbon monoxide detector you’d get in a hardware store and a carbon detection system in a commercial or transit garage, where you have multiple sensors that communicate into a computer that controls the ventilation system and triggers an alarm,” he says.

“The Ontario Building Code requires…that they have to be hardwired into an electrical circuit, so they’re not battery-operated, and they’re not plug-in. They have to be installed and wired to a conduit, and there can’t be any disconnect from the detector to the system so that you can’t accidentally and intentionally disable it.”

Another cost in the report that drew ire was a plan to spend $20,000 on a consultant to confirm whether the spots chosen for detectors were the best ones.

Roger Anderson, the region’s chair, blasted that plan, saying the municipalities already hire staff who would do this type of work.

“Could we not just hire a fire inspector free from the municipality where our building is and say, ‘If we were going to put them in here, Mr. Fire Inspector, where would we put them?’ Isn’t that what their job is? And it’s free?” he said.

“Before we go down a consultant road, I think we should try the fire inspector’s road.”

Following Anderson’s comments, regional staff agreed to look into the possibility of bringing in municipal fire inspectors instead of paying for a consultant.

However, Adamsz says the decision to request funding for a consultant was because it would be an unfair burden on the fire inspectors to look at all of these buildings.

“To put this burden on one fire inspector, one regional employee, I think it’s unfair. He will always fall on the side of caution. We have to keep in mind we’re dealing with a potentially very dangerous situation where if somebody says there is no risk in a location and an accident happens, that person bears that responsibility,” Adamsz says.

“That’s why I think it would be prudent from the region to hire an engineering company that has the resources to provide an educated answer.”

Currently, the region has installed carbon monoxide detectors in the residential properties it owns.

According to Curtis, funding for the new detectors and their installation will not be available until the 2017 regional budget, but added that the money for the consultant could be found before then.