It is often too easy to become a general construction contractor in Quebec, deplore several industry players consulted by The duty. They also believe that the supervision of construction sites and the guarantees offered to buyers who find themselves in poorly constructed buildings are insufficient. State of play.
From Boisbriand to Saint-Jérôme and Longueuil, several stories of residential buildings with major construction defects have made headlines in recent weeks. In some cases, this involves damage observed in the structure of buildings, or even water infiltration associated with construction defects. Buildings sometimes become uninhabitable or at least difficult to insure, creating a nightmare for many owners who see their homes built in recent years turn into a Pandora’s box.
“I would like something to happen in Quebec so that we no longer find ourselves in situations like that. It’s abusive, ”says a co-owner. The latter lives in a building in Longueuil where an inspector noted dozens of “deficiencies” in 2017. The building, built less than two years earlier, is particularly struggling with mold problems in its indoor garage due to ‘a badly insulated concrete slab, says the resident, who did not want to reveal her identity because this case is in court. In the meantime, the co-owners have seen their insurance premiums skyrocket due to construction defects found in the building.
Moreover, in a report published last December, the Autorité des marchés financiers was concerned to see that insurers “have tightened their underwriting standards with respect to recent buildings, even going so far as to refuse this type of risk because the presence of numerous claims whose causes would be, according to the insurers, directly linked to the presence of construction defects”. A situation that causes a lot of headaches for syndicates of co-ownerships.
Better train entrepreneurs
But what explains why construction defects continue to occur in 2023? Joined by The dutytwo entrepreneurs in this environment point to the ease with which it is possible to obtain a license from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) for this type of profession.
“Anyone can get their license” by going to take their exam at the RBQ, says Quebec entrepreneur Jasmin Breton-Vincent. Indeed, even if many training courses exist to learn this trade, these are not compulsory. “It’s a bit of the wild west in licensing for general contractors. »
“You don’t need experience to be a general contractor, you don’t need training, you don’t need anything,” also laments entrepreneur Karl Therriault, who works in the Portneuf region. On this subject, the RBQ replies that the exam failure rate to obtain this type of license is 40%. “So it shouldn’t be that simple to carry out the exams at the RBQ,” says its spokesperson, Sylvain Lamothe.
Site supervision
The president of the Association of Managers and Co-owners of Quebec, Yves Joli-Coeur, for his part, has been urging the Quebec government for years to set up mandatory surveillance of construction sites carried out by the State during the various stages of the work.
“We are not, as a Quebec society, a place where we wanted to have quality control independent of that carried out by the promoter. We didn’t want to,” laments Mr. Joli-Coeur. The province thus finds itself with buildings “poorly constructed, poorly supervised, without control measures”, to the great dismay of many owners. “I have grandchildren. I don’t know what we’re going to bequeath to them as built capital in Quebec. »
“It would take inspections at several stages during the work to make sure you see the structure, to verify that the assembly has been done correctly, to see the tightness of the buildings from the outside,” also believes Karl Therriault. Currently, “inspections are done visually, when everything is finished. But you can’t see through walls,” he says.
A guarantee to improve
In order to protect owners struggling with construction defects, a regulation on the guarantee plan for new residential buildings exists at the provincial level. Since 2015, it has been managed by a non-profit organization called Garantie de construction residential (GCR). However, this by-law only concerns buildings with four dwellings or less, the application of a guarantee therefore being optional for new larger buildings.
GCR, in its limited field of action, has nevertheless had concrete impacts. In recent years, the number of inspections carried out by the organization has increased. At the same time, the number of non-compliances observed on construction sites by the organization has decreased by 54% since 2017.
“There is a good improvement in that sense,” notes GCR vice-president of communications, François-William Simard. That said, “can we go further? It’s clear, ”he agrees. “We must continue with the preventive approach that we have put in place, with more and more inspections. »
Joined by The duty, the RBQ confirms that a reflection is underway to review the by-law on the guarantee plan for new residential buildings, in particular to apply it to larger buildings. The RBQ also plans to require construction contractors to take initial training before taking their exam to obtain a license, in addition to mandatory continuing education put in place last year. “It is our will”, confirms the spokesman Sylvain Lamothe, who specifies that the compulsory surveillance of the building sites is also studied.
Thus, the RBQ aims to respond to a report by the Auditor General of Quebec, Guylaine Leclerc, published in 2021, which raised several shortcomings in the verifications made of the skills of contractors and in the organization’s ability to sufficiently inspect construction sites. construction.
“We work every day to modernize the industry. We no longer want consumers to be caught in the future with this kind of problem,” assures Mr. Lamothe, in reference to the construction defects that buyers of new properties are sometimes faced with. Future changes will take time, however, he warns. “As the saying goes, eating an elephant is done one bite at a time. »