Saint John pushes for review of provincial fire marshal's responsibilities after patio shutdown

After Saint John's boardwalk patios were opened in June, only to be shut down by the province's Fire Marshal's Office mere days later, Deputy Mayor John MacKenzie wants to see a review of the fire marshal's roles and responsibilities. MacKenzie said he hopes for a more collaborative approach to the system to avoid unnecessary impacts on businesses and development projects.  "There's been many issues … across the province where a local authority would OK a project and then the provincial fire marshal would overrule," MacKenzie said. "These are the representatives of the Fire Marshal's Office [at the] local level, and to be overruled at the provincial level — it just keeps businesses and citizens and ... projects kind of off balance."

Saint John common council recently endorsed MacKenzie's motion to take the matter further. The city will now ask the Union of the Municipalities of New Brunswick to review the roles and responsibilities of the office. "What I'm trying to do with this motion is take it provincially so that it's not just a municipality complaining, it's the whole province saying we need to do better," said MacKenzie.

In early June, the patios lining the city's uptown boardwalk along Market Square were partially opened after getting the go-ahead following inspections by the Saint John Fire Department, on behalf of the Fire Marshal's Office, and the city's building inspection office. 

The Fire Marshal's Office, however, ordered the patio closed less than a week later because the non-combustible patio furniture the city invested $180,000 in needed to be assessed for combustibility by engineering firm RJ Bartlett. 

"We can't have shops and bars opening and closing at the whim of somebody saying, 'I don't like that, I don't like this' … I think patience has run out with a lot of people — a lot of businesses have lost thousands of dollars over this," MacKenzie said.

His motion criticizes the Fire Marshal's Office for overruling sign-offs from their local assistants. He is also concerned about a lack of flexibility that doesn't account for unique circumstances or alternative fire safety measures and inconsistent enforcement, saying the Fire Marshal's Office and local officials sometimes interpret fire safety regulations differently. 

The Saint John Fire Department has 10 "local assistants" — between the department's fire prevention officers and command staff — who can act on behalf of the provincial office.

CBC News contacted the Office of the Fire Marshal for comment and received an emailed statement from spokesperson Jessica Hearn.

"If a community wants UMNB to advocate on behalf of the full membership on an issue of a provincial level that affects all municipalities, then they would write a resolution," Andrew Black, president of the Union of the provincial group and mayor of Tantramar. "We would advocate depending on what that resolution looked like and what its details were." In the case of MacKenzie's motion, Black said, the group could take the issue to the minister of public safety or the Fire Marshal's Office. The Saint John Fire Department provided input on the motion but was not available for comment.