Saskatoon considers how to enforce mandatory CO detectors in all homes

The City of Saskatoon is developing a bylaw to give fire department inspectors the power to enforce new rules about carbon monoxide detectors.

Last year, the province made CO alarms mandatory in all buildings with bedrooms, regardless of when they were constructed (the detectors used to only be required in residences built since 2009).

That meant the city had to look at how it would enforce the regulation. In a report that went to the environment, utilities and corporate services committee this week, the Saskatoon Fire Department presented options.

The one it recommended — and the one the committee endorsed — is complaint-driven and would allow inspectors to notify property owners they need to install the monitors. Any changes won't come into effect until they're approved by city council.

"What we recommended was that we don't do this in a punitive way, that we actually find the means and the mechanisms to write an order to be able to allow people the timeline to be able to install them," said assistant fire chief Yvonne Raymer.

"If they don't, then we could take necessary action and actually install them on their behalf. The cost, of course, would go back to the property owner, but we would rather, instead of writing a ticket … just get these alarms in place, get the safety devices installed."

Carbon monoxide is an invisible, odourless gas most often produced when fuel-burning appliances, such as furnaces, malfunction. Symptoms include headaches, nausea, dizziness, burning eyes and drowsiness — and elevated levels can cause illness or death before people even realize the gas is present.

According to the province, an average of 1,200 CO incidents were reported annually to SaskEnergy from 2018 to 2020. The Saskatchewan Coroners Service recorded 16 deaths from accidental CO poisoning from 2015 to 2019.

Residents of a Saskatoon apartment building had a close call with CO poisoning in 2021. A doctor's intuition was key in saving lives, after he suspected CO exposure when he examined a patient in the emergency room. The doctor contacted the fire department, which sent a team to the apartment building and discovered high CO levels.

Firefighters got everyone to leave the building and 29 people were sent to hospital. There were no fatalities. The CO came from a leaking boiler, and there were no CO detectors in the building.

Cameron Choquette, CEO of the Saskatchewan Landlord Association, spoke to the city committee on Tuesday in favour of the fire department's proposed plans for enforcement. 

"There were some very scary situations in Saskatoon a few years ago related to CO alarms in rental properties, and we know how important those life safety devices are," he said.

"That notice to remedy is a really key piece of the enforcement scheme here, because it gives the rental housing provider or the property owner the opportunity to comply, prior to a cost being assessed for a ticket."

Choquette said the association has been actively campaigning for landlords to install CO detectors since the new regulations were put in place in July of last year.

The regulations say that every residential property in Saskatchewan is required to have CO monitors installed in or just outside every bedroom and in rooms where there is a fuel-fired appliance such as a natural gas stove, fireplace, furnace or water heater. The alarms need to be hard-wired, plug-in or have lithium batteries and must have a 10-year expiry period or longer.