Montreal mayor defends herself on fire dept. decision to initiate moratorium on certain inspections

At a press conference Wednesday, Montreal mayor, Valérie Plante, was pressed on the fire department’s moratorium on certain cases of inspecting building evacuation routes.

She defended herself, saying that not every technical file lands on her desk and that the Fire Department makes its own decisions. 

The Global and Mail reported Monday that Montreal’s fire department quietly ended a moratorium on building evacuation routes, days after a fire ripped through a building in Old Montreal last March, killing seven people.

READ: Montreal mayor acknowledges fire dept. stopped investigating building evacuation routes 5 years ago

The mayor said it was initiated in 2018 and ended in 2021, and not after the deadly Old Montreal fire.

For his part, the fire chief said it only applied to specific complex judicial cases.

The mayor also clarified that the moratorium was not about inspections, but about follow-ups in court when an owner is uncooperative about upgrades to their building.

“This is why it was important for me yesterday to give a mandate to the general controller, because we do want to have a clear and a 360 vision of why decision this decision was made,” Plante said. “Was it the right one? Are we moving forward fast enough? And what will be the impact?”

Plante said the city will soon be determining the mandate and the timeline for the controller general to provide an overview of the decision.

“Montrealers wants to have answers and I understand I do also want to have answers,” she said.