Work carried out by contractors who do not hold a license from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec (RBQ) is the subject of thousands of complaints each year in Quebec, it has been learned The dutyBut few of them are sanctioned, even if their “dangerous” practices can affect the safety of the occupants of these buildings constructed “under the table”, note those in the sector.
Since 2014, an average of 2,843 complaints concerning unlicensed work have been reported to the RBQ, according to data provided by the latter to Dutyfollowing an access to information request. Meanwhile, the number of investigations conducted by the RBQ concerning the presence of workers who do not have the required qualifications on building construction or renovation sites has fallen considerably, from 3,669 during the 2014-2015 fiscal year to 640 during the 2023-2024 fiscal year.
These data are worrying, according to the expert advisor for the labor relations department within the Association of Construction and Housing Professionals of Quebec, Francis Montmigny, who is concerned about the possibility that many illegally carried out works will go unpunished in Quebec.
“The compliance of buildings is super important, and the license given by the Régie du bâtiment is a guarantee of the quality of the work that contractors deliver,” he notes. “Underground” workers who do not hold this license thus risk carrying out renovation or construction work of “reduced quality,” which could prove to be “dangerous” for the safety of the occupants of these buildings, continues Mr. Montmigny.
“The license certifies that the company has the skills required to work on a construction site” and therefore that the work will be carried out “in accordance with the requirements of the codes and standards,” also notes the RBQ. The latter also assures that it takes seriously the thousands of complaints it receives each year for work without a license. However, in recent years, the organization has decided to stop opening an investigation for each complaint, but rather to open an investigation for each contractor, which would explain the noted decrease, states the organization.
Construction sites suspended
The RBQ only issues a few dozen orders to suspend construction work per year because the workers on the site or the contractor carrying out the work did not hold the license requested by the organization, according to data provided to Duty. Around fifty were reported for the last financial year, during which the RBQ received 2,422 complaints for unlicensed work.
A work suspension order was also imposed last year on real estate developer Henry Zavriyev, we learned. The dutyOn August 29, 2023, inspectors from the Commission de la construction du Québec (CCQ) found that renovation work was being carried out without a license from the RBQ in a three-story, 15-unit building on Rue Poupart in Ville-Marie, which a company owned by Mr. Zavriyev had acquired in March last year for the sum of $1.9 million.
“A worker who was doing work on the third floor was throwing debris from the balcony and not warning the people downstairs,” recalls Keenan Poloncsak, who lived in the building at the time. The tenant recalls workers “not wearing hard hats” who were doing renovations at odd hours in the building, causing several tenants to leave.
The CCQ thus forced Henry Zavriyev to suspend this project for a month, while he complies with the law, the organization confirmed to Duty. “The apartment renovation work was first undertaken by our maintenance employees. Following the CCQ order, we hired workers with an RBQ license to complete the work,” the real estate developer confirmed by email.
The building was then sold last December to a real estate company in a $4.5 million transaction that netted Mr Zavriyev’s company a profit on the resale of $2.6 million.
A question of security
Montreal building inspector Giovanni Di Tirro also notes that, often, the work he is sent out to do without a permit from the City is carried out by employees who do not have their certificate of competence or a license from the Régie du bâtiment du Québec. “When work is done without a permit, they sometimes do not have construction boots, a helmet or safety glasses. In terms of occupational health and safety, we are missing out,” notes the inspector.
However, “it is dangerous to do work,” recalls Francis Montmigny, who is concerned about the safety of workers who operate in the shadow of the supervision offered by the RBQ. Already, in recent years, injuries in the construction sector reported to the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité du travail have continued to increase, reaching 9,590 in 2023.
“A danger to the public”
In a judgment rendered on May 28 by the commissioner Marc-Antoine Oberson, the owner of a construction company, Peter Bouwman, had his RBQ licence cancelled. The latter made this decision after finding that the contractor had built “at least five residences” in Gatineau before obtaining his licence in November 2020. Mr. Bouwman also allegedly built 24 new residences before even obtaining the permits required by the city of Outaouais. Some of these houses were built in violation of certain urban planning regulations of this city, the RBQ found, while others were sold without adhering to a guarantee plan.
“These are not makeshift or emergency repairs, but complete residences built completely illegally,” wrote the manager Oberson, according to whom the practices of this builder “constitute a danger to the public.” “The facts are too serious for the continuation of the license, and it is in the protection of the public” to withdraw it, he concluded.
To prevent such situations from recurring, “systematic” inspections of construction sites are necessary, believes the spokesperson for the Association de la construction du Québec, Guillaume Houle, who thus calls on the RBQ, which has this “responsibility,” he emphasizes. “This would be, in our opinion, the best way to protect the public,” he argues.
In this regard, the RBQ recalls that in 2022 it set up a new team dedicated to audits on construction and renovation sites in the residential sector, which contributes in particular to “ensuring the compliance of contractors carrying out construction work.”