Steinbach City Council has decided to move forward with a planned Dwelling Safety Standards bylaw to regulate secondary suites.

City Manager Troy Warkentin and City Planner Lacey Gaudet presented the proposed bylaw to council at a committee meeting Tuesday evening.

Warkentin says the purpose of this proposed bylaw is to find and document all secondary suites within the city and make sure they are safe to live in. He notes it has been difficult to pin down just how many secondary suites there are in Steinbach but they believe the number to be between 300 and 600.

He notes many of these are basement suites and many are done correctly, but an increasing number are not in compliance with fire code, building code, or zoning bylaws.

"Because we have become more aware of it, we do have an obligation to our ratepayers and to our community, we want to make sure that there is the availability of housing in Steinbach but also to make sure that it is safe for the tenants. This Dwelling Safety Standards Bylaw that has been proposed is a way that we feel we can best do that and serve our community."

Gaudet says they believe many of the secondary suites and basement suites are accidentally in non-compliance, however in some cases, the landlord is fully aware that their suite is not acceptable.

If the bylaw is approved by city council, Mayor Earl Funk says any suite built before 2010 will have to meet a few minimum safety requirements.

"They need to follow the four categories. They need to have smoke detector in each bedroom and on in the remainder of that dwelling unit, the smoke detector must be tested at least once a year, carbon monoxide alarms must be installed in each apartment, and each building should have an egress as to provide a safe exit."

2010 was the first year that secondary suites were included in Manitoba's building code. With that in mind, the proposed Dwelling Safety Standards bylaw mandates that any suite built after 2010 would need to be brought up to code.

Funk notes there are two main reasons city council is looking to put move forward with this proposed bylaw.

"That there is safety for all our residents and for our staff as they have to go into these buildings but also to level the playing field. When you look at the developers that are developing multifamily dwellings, they are going through all the right hoops and it is very expensive. The competition would be the secondary suite in someone’s basement. We want to make sure that they are both safe, that they are both compliant that they are both equitable and one is not undercutting the other."

Gaudet says most suites that are currently not in compliance could be fixed with just a few thousand dollars in renovations. She notes under the proposed bylaw, landlords would be given a reasonable amount of time to do the necessary work. She adds if this bylaw is approved at the council level, suites that are not safe and cannot be made safe will be decommissioned which is unfortunate, however, those suites should not be lived in.

Councillor Jac Siemens did bring up concerns at the committee meeting that there is a chance some low-income individuals or families could lose housing if their suites are decommissioned. That said, he also noted the importance of providing safe living environments and supported the plan to move forward in the bylaw process.

Warkentin says administration will now make sure the bylaw is ready and present it to city council for first reading sometime in summer. He notes the hope is to have something formally in place by the end of the year so that they can begin the long process of documenting secondary suites, educating both tenants and landlords, and performing inspections.