Chartwell Seniors Housing REIT

Local firefighters say it's about time the installation of sprinklers in Ontario's retirement and long-term care homes becomes mandatory. This comes as the McGuinty government announced on Wednesday that it has ordered a technical advisory committee looking at the issue to deliver its findings by the fall, instead of early next year. The committee was charged with recommending that more retirement and long-term care homes across the province become equipped with sprinklers. Under current legislation, retirement and long-term care homes may operate without sprinklers, so long as the properties compensate by containing stronger than required fire separation barriers between rooms or floors, or more than required numbers of smoke detectors on the site. Captain Mark Yantha, of the Cambridge Fire Department, said there is no doubt making sprinkler systems mandatory in assistive living homes, as most in the industry expect the government will legislate soon, would help fi…