City of Montreal to hire 13 new inspectors to crack down on unsanitary housing

The City of Montreal will soon almost double its number of housing inspectors,from 17 to 30, as a way to crack down on poor building conditions and unsanitary housing.

When Mayor Valrie Plante tables her first budget Wednesday, it will put$1 milliontowardteams of inspectors.

Magda Popeanu, the city's executive committee member in charge of housing, said 60 per cent of Montrealers are renters.

Popeanu said that rental buildings in the city will be coded, and then inspectors will visit the buildings and the units. Multiple visits could mean hefty fines for landlords.

"When the city inspectors come the second and the third time and the problem is not solved, the owners will pay," Popeanu said.

"All the time we talk about slumlordsso for us it's very important to invest the money and the effort to create a proper environment."

One housing advocate group says itapplauds the decision to hire new inspectors, but wants to see more done immediately.

"They need to apply, more forcefully, the regulations that already exist. It's good to put more money in, but then, they already have all the tools they have," saidMaximeRoy-Allard of the Coalition of Housing Committees (RCLALQ).

Roy-Allardadded that landlords should be fined as soon as they violate the rules.