The HUGE $2,500 Deterrent

Thomas D. Marriott of Brownlee LLP, gave a presentation entitled "Emerging Legal Trends Recent Case Law" on June 10 at Alberta Safety Codes Council's Summit 2006 Conference held in Banff. In it (on page 18 if you are following along in the pdf...) he discussed a 2005 case; R. v. Pacer Signature Homes Inc. The facts of the case as Mr. Marriott listed are:

• Formal warnings regarding stucco coating material used on residential homes.
• On April 6, 2004 two orders were listed under the Safety Codes Act.
• Pacer failed to meet the deadlines for compliance, and was charged with non-compliance on Nov. 18, 2004
• Pacer did not obtain a satisfactory expert report that the intent of the code was met until Oct. 3, 2005

So, these guys ignored a non-compliance order for 18 months! They pled guilty to the charges. Pacer Homes Inc was then fined for not applying the stucco to code, ignoring deadlines, ignoring two orders for 18 months, ignoring two charges of non-compliance for 10 1/2 months, and having the penalty increased for "Aggravating factors" for a grand total of $2,500 per offence ($5,000 total). Come on, you have got to be kidding me.

Lets put a little perspective around this, did you know that in the City of Calgary the fine for Grafitti is a minimum of $2,500?

In his presentation Mr. Marriott listed that Pacer's defence was that "no one was hurt, it was a victimless crime", and that the offence was "a function of tardiness alone". Um, by "victimless crime" I guess they forgot the part about unnecessarily increasing the risk to the home buyers of mould (toxic and non-toxic), not to mention the stress that is caused by having to fight housing companies that choose to ignore customers, rules, regulations, Building Codes, legal contracts, etc. and the deterrent is a big, fat $2,500 hit in the pocketbook. Yea, that's going to stop them!

If you have read this, and are as upset as I am, go ahead and drop Mr. John Hillary an email, he's the Executive Director of the Alberta Safety Codes Council. You can find his email (and others) on the Alberta Safety Codes Council website under "Who to Contact".

UPDATE: The Ian Mosher "Couple of Days" timer is currently at: 11 Business Days.