Ontario spending $20M on sprinkler overhaul for smaller retirement homes

TORONTO Small retirement homes that can’t afford to install automatic fire sprinklers, mostly in rural Ontario, can now apply for provincial government funding to get the life-saving systems in place before new fire code rules that were prompted by a number of deadly fires go into effect.

The Liberal government recently pledged $20 million to help small homes with under 49 beds and homes in rural communities overhaul their sprinkler systems before the Jan. 1, 2019, deadline.

In 2014, Ontario became the first province to make sprinkler retrofits mandatory in retirement homes following a coroner’s inquest into a fatal 2009 blaze at an Orillia retirement home.

The coroner’s report called for retroactive installation of sprinkler systems in vulnerable occupancies like retirement homes. Before that, only facilities built after 1998 were required to have sprinklers.

But that move worried some operators who voiced concern that they might not be able to afford the upgrades, which could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Minister of Seniors Affairs Dipika Damerla said that after consultations with small and rural home operators, it was clear some were struggling with the costs.

“We’ve given the industry some time to phase this in,” she said. “With some homes it became apparent cost-sharing would be the right model.”