Three inspections instead of one | La Presse

Hailed as a “culture change” by Labour Minister Jean Boulet, a new program will require contractors to undergo three inspections for all new homes. One of those inspections will have to take place before the walls are closed in, while essential components like electrical and plumbing are still visible.

This “2025-2029 Inspection Program” was presented Tuesday at a press conference by Garantie de construction résidentiel (GCR), exclusive manager of new home warranties in Quebec since 2015.

Minister Boulet, who will present a broader bill in the fall aimed at regulating the quality of construction in all sectors, immediately recalled that non-conformities had been detected in nearly half of the residential buildings in Quebec, according to inspections carried out by the Régie du bâtiment du Québec over the last four years.

“So, there are construction problems,” noted the minister. “We are determined, I am determined to increase the number of inspections on our territory. I even want to go further by deploying a series of measures that will correct certain deficiencies and ensure upstream that plans and specifications are always correctly followed from now on, in Quebec.”

Four times more inspectors

The inspection program presented by GCR will be implemented gradually by 2029.

By 2025, all homes built by lower-rated contractors will be inspected at least twice, including once before the walls close. By 2028, 100% of new homes will have been inspected before this crucial step. Finally, by 2029, all homes will have been entitled to these three inspections, according to GCR’s schedule.

“Few people know this, but according to GCR’s assessments, it would be 8 to 15 times more expensive to redo poorly executed work during the initial construction of a building than to do it well from the start,” recalled Minister Boulet.

Since Quebec gave it this mandate in 2015, GCR estimates it has inspected 68,000 new homes, from single-family homes to condos in buildings with fewer than four floors. For the first time last year, in 2023, 100% of new homes were inspected, according to the organization’s report. The average number of non-conformities detected per home has practically been reduced by half, from 1.54 reports in 2017 to 0.64 in 2023.

To meet its new ambitions, GCR will have to increase its team of inspectors from 25 to 100 by 2029. Questioned by journalists on the training of these inspectors, whose lack of expertise had been exposed in a report on the program The bill In 2022, GCR’s vice-president of communications, François-William Simard, was reassuring.

“There are a series of tools available to inspectors, and they have access to all the tools that are necessary. […] As for training, it is important to mention: they are all members of a professional order. They are therefore either architects, technologists or engineers. So, the training is there, that is very clear.