Michael Prue, MPP | News--Prue makes third push for improved fire safety

14 December 2007
Prue Makes Third Push for Fire Safety Improvements
Bill would ban wooden fire escapes, improve fire alarms in multi-unit dwellings

QUEEN’S PARK—NDP MPP Michael Prue introduced his Private Member’s Bill, banning wooden fire escapes and calling for audible, interconnected smoke alarms in common areas of multi-residential buildings.

Known as Bill 14, The Fire Protection Statute Law Amendment Act, the legislation would amend the existing Fire Protection and Prevention Act and the Building Code Act. This marks the third time Prue has brought the bill forward.

In 2006, a previous incarnation of the bill received third reading and made it all the way to the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills, where public hearings took place. Despite all party support, the bill died when the McGuinty government suspended the legislature in June 2007.

“When this government chose to shut down the legislature in 2007, this bill was one of the many casualties of that decision. This was one of those rare bills that garnered all party support and should have easily been made into law by now,” said Prue. “This bill gives us a real opportunity to help save lives, and I hope that the government won’t let it languish a third time.”

Prue’s proposed legislation is strongly supported by Firefighters' Associations, Fire Personnel, Tenants’ Organizations and Fire Safety Professionals.

In his submission to the Committee in August 2006, Frank Lamie, Toronto’s Deputy Chief of Fire Prevention spoke in favour of the bill, saying “Mr. Prue understands the main goal of the Fire Service is to stop loss of life due to fire. The measures that will be implemented when this Bill is passed into law are steps to help reach this goal in residential buildings.”

Prue’s bill was inspired by the advocacy of Tom Steers, a Beaches-East York constituent whose fiancée was one of two lives lost in a tragic January 1999 fire. Steers has pushed to have the Coroner’s recommendations implemented in order to prevent future tragedies. Prue’s bill, first introduced in 2005, incorporates two of the recommendations.