Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Redford plan is beyond words.

The Redford Government has plans to repeal the requirements that all bedrooms have a window large enough to escape from in the event of fire.

"Alberta's Minimum Housing and Health Standards have been in place since 1999, and they set clear rules about emergency escape routes in rental bedrooms. The current law says: "Each bedroom shall have at least one outside window which may be opened from the inside without the use of tools or special knowledge."
It requires the window be at least 3.8 square feet or big enough to climb out if a house catches fire. The only exception is if the bedroom has a door leading directly outside or if there is a sprinkler system installed.
The proposed new regulation, called the Rental Housing Premises and Shelter Standards, was drafted in July and is much less specific.
"Each room or area used as a bedroom must provide a reasonable means of egress," it reads. There is no mention of windows or doors and it is up to landlords to decide what "reasonable" means." Read the rest at the Calgary Herald. The political donation angle is worth taking a look at.

This is a political disaster. The idea is so stupid that it is beyond words and if the documents were not real we would have heard about it hours ago as the PC spin machine never sleeps, but so far it has been silence from the PC's.  My prediction is a total bail and flip flop on the changes and try to spin it as only a 'preliminary' doc.

As for the optics of the donations, well that is something else entirely.

5 comments:

maryT said...

If said company used all those donations to retrofit bldgs, they would not need to raise rents.

Anonymous said...

Redford's sins (so far, anyway) pale in comparison to Ralph Klein's gross malfeasance. As an example his administration blew up the Calgary General Hospital as a publicity stunt, destroying what was in-arguably the best trauma unit in the country. Then sold off the very desirable property which had been bequeathed in perpetuity for the hospital to his cronies.

The Holy Cross Hospital was then sold to corporate interests, dismantling the best cardiac unit in the province.

Next came the promise of less expensive energy via de-regulation. Interestingly Direct Energy, who has a very dodgy record was given the nod as a supplier. In retrospect Ralph and his cronies "Enronized" Alberta's energy supply.

In the midst of plenty Albertans are now paying more for electricity than anyone else in North America.

wilson said...

You're right Anon @ 4:20,
replacing the leader is not renewal of a 40 year old party.
Can't fix what's broken in the PC party, time to vote them out,
vote Wildrose.

Blame Crash said...

By the tone of this anonymous commenter, he must be one of those new PC-Libranos Party members.
Despite what he says, the Calgary General was an "old clunker" of a hospital whose time was up.
And I'd like to see some proof that we're paying more for electricity than anyone else in North America or is this complain just more half truths and spin?

NeoLuddite said...

Blame_Crash:

Have to dis-abuse you of your notion of my political affiliation. I despise the PC-Libranos just as much if not more than you do. The very antithesis of my conviction is the magazine "AlbertViews"

I'm politically agnostic, actually a plumb-line libertarian and will always maintain that Ralph was no saint - if Alberta were to ever have one I'd nominate Grant Notley. While I never agreed with his NDP philosophy I admired him for how he held the Tory's feet to the fire.