Public safety not ‘red tape’

To the Editor:

The Aug. 23, 2007 edition of The Hants Journal included a one-sided and misleading article by Fred Lawrence entitled, “Lumber easier to saw through than red tape.”

While the National Building Code (NBC) may be just red tape to Mr. Lawrence, most people place great reliance on the fact that there are construction standards in this country to ensure that buildings are safe.

The objectives of the NBC are to achieve structural safety, fire safety, health and accessibility in the construction of buildings. The NBC has been adopted by the Province of Nova Scotia and must be enforced by Building Officials at the municipal level.

Both the NBC and the Canadian Farm Building Code require that lumber which is to be used for joists, rafters, trusses, load-bearing studs and beams be graded. A grade stamp indicates a lumber’s grade according to rules established by the National Lumber Grades Authority.

In addition, the stamp identifies the species, moisture content, special processing such as heat treatment and the mill that produced the piece of lumber. The purpose of lumber grading is to provide a minimum standard for lumber manufacturing that ensures a consistent level of dimensional size, strength, quality and, ultimately, the safety of the structure.

The grade stamp also allows buyers to identify easily what lumber they need for a specific project and whether the material delivered is what they ordered. A graded lumber requirement has been part of the NBC since before 1980.

The Municipality of the District of West Hants and the Town of Windsor employ well-trained professional Building Officials who are responsible for enforcing all aspects of the building code. The primary concern of these building officials is public safety. While many small sawmill operators do produce excellent quality lumber, the graded lumber requirement is in the code to protect the public from less reputable operators. Unfortunately, a regulation must apply to all and it’s not possible for a building official to single out certain mills for special treatment.

Windsor-West Hants Building Official Tim Leslie has provided local sawmill operators with several options that allow them to continue supplying lumber until they are able to have someone trained as a certified grader. These include having a professional engineer or another qualified grader certify the lumber.

The Maritime Lumber Bureau, the agency responsible for training and certifying lumber graders, has staff that will come out to a site and grade the lumber to be used in a project. The Bureau regularly offers training courses for those who wish to become certified graders. In the last year, three courses were offered, most recently in June and August.

Warden Richard Dauphinee stated, on behalf of West Hants Council, “we fully support our Building Officials who are looking after the safety of the residents of West Hants.” Windsor Mayor Anna Allen commented that, “especially with the construction boom we are experiencing, Windsor Council is grateful to have dedicated Building Officials making sure that new buildings will be safe for our residents.”

Yours truly

Lynn Davis

Director of Planning

Windsor-West Hants Joint Planning Advisory Committee