MPP supports Hawkins-Gignac Act

Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli
News Release

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Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli confirms he will support a Private Members’ Bill requiring all Ontario homes to have functioning carbon monoxide detectors.

“I intend to make passage of the Hawkins-Gignac Act a priority in the upcoming sitting of the legislature,” Fedeli said.

Oxford MPP Ernie Hardeman (PC) announced plans Friday to re-introduce the bill before Christmas. He has twice previously introduced the Hawkins-Gignac Act in December
2008 and December 2010. Both times it passed first and second reading unanimously, but died in committee when the government prorogued the Legislature.

“Passage of this legislation is imperative if we are to prevent similar tragedies in the future, and I urge my colleagues from each party to support it,” said Fedeli, who while serving as Mayor of the City of North Bay spearheaded and enacted a Carbon Monoxide By-law which was put in place in the city.

In December 2008, former North Bay residents OPP Constable Laurie Hawkins and her husband Richard, along their two children Cassandra and Jordan, were killed in their Woodstock home by carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide (CO) is the leading cause of fatal poisonings in Ontario, Canada and North America. An estimated 414 Canadians died of carbon monoxide poisoning
between 2000 and 2007 (87 in Ontario) according to statistics provided by provincial coroners and compiled by The Canadian Press.

Carbon monoxide gas is colourless, odourless and tasteless, making it undetectable and therefore even more dangerous. Early symptoms of CO poisoning include headaches, nausea and fatigue, but are often mistaken for the flu and ignored.

The Ontario Building Code currently requires that new homes have carbon monoxide detectors, but this protection isn’t required in homes built before August 2001.

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