Performance Reporting — Continued

Core Business Area: Safety and Standards

Goal 4: Sustainable level of safety in the built environment.

Objectives:

1. To establish and support a network of Local Assistants to the Fire Commissioner appointed under the authority of the Fire Services Act.
2. To support public education on safety.
3. To establish and support a framework for safety.
4. To develop a framework for the regulation of the housing construction industry.

Performance Measure	Target 2002/03	Actual 2002/03
Implementation of new information system for Safety Engineering Services.	March 2003	Prototype software was completed by March 2002. A decision was made to continue with purchasing software and implementing across the division in 2002/03. Software was developed for a number of disciplines by March 2003, and is expected to be fully implemented by December 2003.1

Discussion of variance:
1	The new information system was only partially developed by March 2003. The delay in completing this project stemmed from the original completion target being set before details of the implementation plan were firmly established. The system will be in place in time for the launch of the new Safety Authority in April 2004.

Other achievements for which targets were not set in the Service Plan for 2002/03:

Office of the Fire Commissioner

• The office provided 15 introductory courses for the new Local Assistants to the Fire Commissioner, as well as six fire inspection courses and 10 fire investigation courses. It also provided eight workshops on topics specific to fire prevention. Approximately 800 people were trained through these initiatives.
• The office introduced the Fire Information Retrieval and Evaluation System, which enables fire departments to submit their fire loss reports online. The system will significantly improve local departments' capacity to share information and the Province's capacity to aggregate information and determine trends.

Safety Engineering Services

• This division developed two pieces of legislation, which were introduced in March 2003. Bill 19 (Safety Standards Act) and Bill 20 (Safety Authority Act) stemmed from recommendations of the Safety Systems Review, which was launched in 1995 and led to the 1997 report, which initiated the Safety Systems Transformation Project. The Safety Standards Act will replace four existing pieces of legislation pertaining to safety and standards with a modern regulatory regime. The Safety Authority Act will provide the legislative framework for the creation of an independent safety authority. Delivery of safety services will be moved from government to this authority by April 1, 2004.

Building Policy

• The ministry concluded 13 weeks of Internet-based consultation with stakeholders on proposed changes to the joint national/provincial/territorial building, fire and plumbing codes. The volume and quality of contributions from construction industry stakeholders surpassed the ministry's expectations. These contributions will help to shape the development of new objective-based codes.