ERO number 019-6433 After…

ERO number 019-6433

After reading through the Qualification Program for Ontario's Building Practitioners summary proposal I have some serious concerns.

I do not agree with reducing the number of questions on the exams, 3 hours is more than ample time to complete any exam if the person is experienced, educated and OBC knowledgeble. If people are simply challenging an exam without the benefit of taking a course prior, and they either do not answer all the questions or fail, they were probably not ready to write the exam in the first place. The idea of making it easier to pass the exams, in my opinion, will create building inspectors that do not know what they are supposed to be inspecting and therefore could create serious problems for the municipality they are employed by. If the goal is to simply have more inspectors, I hope the government is prepared for the potential fallout that could follow. Also reducing the number of qualifications an inspector needs to do the job is problematic.

The use of a digital code during exams also sounds problematic to me. A person writing the exam simply needs to view the OBC with a PDF viewer that has search capabilities, they could enter a portion of the question or answers into the search bar and get the information they are looking for. This in no way will help that person because when they are doing plan reviews or inspections, they won't know where in the OBC to look for the information they need. This could lead to that person giving incorrect information to builders, designers, owner/builders, which in turn could create problems, or they could be on an inspection and incorrectly indentify deficiences that are not present.

I don't see a problem with giving credit for previous experience provided acceptable minimums are put in place for this credit, such as a Red Seal plumber would have to have at least 5 years practical experience after they receive their Red Seal and are recognized as fully qualified to do their job as a plumber. Requiring applicants to verify their experience and education through the apprenticeship program would ensure people can not create the system.

In summation, we can not take shortcuts in training and educating building inspectors (and designers) otherwise we will be repeating the mistakes of the past, look back at the homes built in the 80's & 90's, there was a lot of terrible homes built and many homeowners suffered because of it. This rush to push things through can and will, in my opinion, have negative consequences in the long run if the primary concern everyone focuses on is increasing the numbers.