MANAGEMENT
Elevator Repair Legislation Advances
Contractors in Ontario await fine-tuning of newly approved regulations
Ontario is kicking the dust off elevator repair legislation that was
BY REBECCA MELNYK
passed in May 2018 during the previous Liberal government’s tenure, but never
proclaimed into law. In a move that will see better elevator availabilit y and stricter maintenance requirements, recently approved regulatory changes allow the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) to impose financial penalties for noncompliance with legal requirements. Elevator outage data must also be reported to TSSA for online publication. In a statement, the ministry of government and consumer affairs said owners of elevators in a long-term care home or residential building will need to report all prolonged outages (i.e., of 48 hours or longer) to TSSA, along with the cause of the outage and certain characteristics of the building/
elevator via an online form. Potential home buyers would be able to search an address and gather this data. Both changes take effect on July 1, 2022, following government consultations that began last summer on the previously shelved legislation, which was built on recommendations in the 2018 Value for-Money audit of TSSA by the Auditor General of Ontario, as well as a report by former Superior Court Justice Douglas Cunningham that assessed elevator availability in Ontario. At the time, there was growing concern about prolonged breakdowns in multi-storey residential buildings and long-term care homes.
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Fine-tuning the legislation While a gain for consumers, the legislation falls short of addressing some challenges elevator contractors face on the job. For instance, data could be collected on elevator contractors servicing a problematic 50-yearold building. “If it’s older equipment that hasn’t been modernized and the contractor has been advising the owner to upgrade the equipment for the past five years, does this still become the elevator contractor’s responsibility to maintain the equipment in excellent running condition?” says Rob Isabelle, chief operating officer with the elevator specialty firm, KJA Consultants, and
