Winnipeg & Province - sump pump and backwater valve subsidy

Deank wrote:i can tell you right now it WONT be more then 3000 homes taking advantage.

We simply dont have enough qualified tradesmen that are sitting there on their asses doing nothing right now.

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/115012069.html

"WINNIPEG — A local contractor told a city committee there aren't enough
licenced plumbers to install backwater valves and sump pumps in Winnipeg
homes before the spring flood hits."

duh..

Never mind getting it all inspected by Inspectors who are so far behind now , while sitting on their a$$ .

yup.. I covered that one already too

seriously I sometimes wonder if our politicians have a brain at all when they come up with these "schemes" I find it difficult that not one single person in the prov or city who was part of the meetings to create this financial package for "us" failed to understand the ramifications of some of their rules

1) only licensed plumbers... well really? do you even understand the job at all if you think all the work needs to be done by licensed plumbers?
2) cant owe the city any money.... really? Now.. do you think it is the person who is suffering a little financial hardship and might be a month behind in taxes or a water bill that might benefit more from this type of program..or the person who is not suffering financial hardship? hmmm....
3) You must obtain a city permit./you must get a city inspection done.... when the permit and inspection departments are already swamped? No thought or mention of temporarily moving employees around to help?
4) and this is the real Kicker .. NOT ACTUALLY TAKING THIS TO COUNCIL FOR ANOTHER MONTH YET. wtf? really? dumbasses. If ever there was a real call for some special meetings.. this is it.

The Licensed part I agree with as i hear the hair brained ideas people think will work all the time and believe me some should not even attempt this as they are lost at break concrete .

but licensed plumber? why not just licensed contractor?

Sometimes worse as their is no license for a contractor , remember we talk licence as to plumbing not city .

actually no.. we are talking a license from the city to be able to do plumbing work within the city.

its right in the city rules.

Deank wrote:but licensed plumber? why not just licensed contractor?

A plumber requires a trade license while a contractor only requires a vendors/business license.

Even a contractor requires a trade license to take out a permit for electrical and plumbing btw.

exfucken cuse me???

"Barry MacBride, the head of the city's water and waste department, said
city officials discovered there is no way to track how many residents
took out permits to install the devices last year to see how big the
demand will be."

http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Retroactive-flood-protection-subsidy-costs-unknown-115033919.html

that's comical....

makes the whole permit thing look like a huge money making joke.

oops!

indeed it does.

nobody's been fired yet? It's been a day since Mr. MacBride admitted that the whole permits department is a complete joke and just a additional revenue generating arm. I would have expected, at the very least for someone to take this issue and start grandstanding with it...

Who's jurisdiction is this anyway? City or Province?

The whole permit system needs a review IMO. The prices of obtaining a permit increase, yet there is a continuious shortage of inspectors.

On top of this, it's my understanding (don't take my word on it, but I've heard from contractors who pull permits often) that due to the shortage of specialized inspectors who used to only inspect their own area of expertise (such as plumbing, electrical etc.)those divisions are or have come down and so any inspector -even one who knows nothing about that particular thing he's inspecting, lets say electrical- can be assigned to inspect the work being done.

Hope my verbiage makes sense...

There's something seriously wrong with the permit department.

I have no problem pulling a permit, and paying a fee to do so. That fee is supposed to cover sending a qualified inspector to make sure that the work that was done to code, and done properly. It should go without saying that they should also have a proper filing system to view and review past issued permits.