Adrienne Tanner is a Vancouver journalist who writes about civic affairs.
By the time a provincial safety act or law is named after you, chances are you have long been dead and buried.
In Ontario, there is the Hawkins-Gignac Act, a statute enacted in 2015 that makes carbon-monoxide detectors mandatory in all homes and buildings.
Tragedy gave rise to this act; it was passed after Laurie and Richard Hawkins and their two children died of carbon-monoxide (CO) poisoning from a faulty basement fireplace. It was named after the family and Laurie’s uncle, John Gignac, a long-time firefighter who led the charge to change the law. A similar scenario played out in B.C. in 2017 when a family of four living in Venables Valley in the B.C. interior died of CO poisoning from a malfunctioning hot-water heater.
Yet no such act was passed here.
Vancouver narrowly avoided another mass tragedy during last week’s cold snap when a CO leak from a faulty boiler sent 13 office workers to hospital. Luckily, they all pulled through. The next day a family of five from Barriere was flown to and treated at Vancouver General Hospital after being poisoned by CO in their home. That was a close call too. An astute emergency operator recognized the signs described by a family member who called 911 and instructed the caller to pull other family members outside. In all, VGH treated 23 people for CO poisoning last week. All have now been released.
Everyone should know this by now, yet it bears repeating: Carbon monoxide is an odourless gas that is so deadly that in 2017, all B.C. paramedics were equipped with clip-on detectors to alert them to danger when entering buildings. A CO alarm is the only way to detect this killer gas.
We know this, yet detectors are not mandatory in B.C. buildings constructed before 2006 and most homes still don’t have them. The same is true in most other Canadian provinces outside Ontario and the territory of Yukon. As a result, CO kills an average of 300 people a year countrywide, more than the average of 200 people a year who die in fires.
So why on earth has B.C.’s provincial government not followed Ontario’s lead and mandated CO detectors in all buildings? Surely, we shouldn’t wait for another family to die. When asked for a response after the recent spate of poisonings, B.C. Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth made no promises, but issued a statement saying the government is examining all options by which CO detectors could be legislated.
He said B.C.’s building code requirements can be applied whenever a building is renovated or repaired, but noted it is challenging to enforce in cases of minor home renovations. He urged people to take the initiative and install their own detectors.
Mr. Farnworth has a point. It’s hard to imagine inspectors running around to every bathroom renovation checking for CO detectors. It’s also true that even though smoke detectors are mandatory, not all homes have them.
But that doesn’t warrant government inaction. The very fact smoke detectors are legally required in all buildings carries substantial weight. A study published by the Fraser Valley University’s Centre for Public Safety and Criminal Justice Research calls for mandatory CO detectors nationwide.
Fire deaths in B.C. dropped by 65 per cent when smoke detectors were legislated followed by a publicity campaign by BC Fire Service, said Len Garis, a professor at FVU and one of the study’s authors. There is every reason to believe legislated CO detectors and publicity would send CO-related deaths on the same downward trajectory, said Mr. Garis, who is also Surrey’s fire chief.
At between $30 and $55 apiece, the devices that combine CO and fire detection in one alarm are not hugely expensive. And it doesn’t take an electrician to install them. I’m out of excuses and am stocking up at my local hardware store today.
But not everyone will – particularly renters who tend to earn less and might rightly see the provision of smoke and CO detectors as a landlord’s responsibility.
That is why the government should flex its legal muscle immediately. Let’s not have to name the B.C. law, which logic suggests will eventually be passed, after someone for whom it is too late.