Saskatoon Buildings Committee met with City of Saskatoon to clarify Building Code implementation processes.  This is the first of a series of articles that will provide guidance to members about these processes.  The articles are in a question and answer format.

The first link is to a set of City of Saskatoon forms that will be referenced in the series of articles to be published over the next several months.  

Question:
What are the procedures for full and partial occupancy permits and is there movement towards a mandatory occupancy permit process?

Response:
The owner of a building shall ensure that no occupant is exposed to any unsafe conditions. When a building is occupied, the owner is liable to make sure the building is safe and to make sure life safety is met. Often building owners are unaware of life safety requirements or issues. Occupancy permits were created to assist owners and are voluntary. The City of Saskatoon has partial occupancy and full occupancy permits and both occupancy permits can be applied for through Tanda Wunder-Buhr at Building Standards. Occupancy permits include inspections by the Building Inspectors and Fire Inspectors.

Question:

The 2010 NBC revised exit sign requirements to incorporate a green “running man” pictogram instead of the red with letters reading “EXIT”.   This is not an issue for new buildings, however it raises some concerns for building renovations and additions where you could end up with two different types of exit signs in the same building (or same area).   Other jurisdictions (i.e. Winnipeg) have polices to address this.  Does the COS have a policy in place and if not, can they create one to ensure consistency?

Response:

New red EXIT signs can be utilized in existing buildings to match those already present.  In multi-story buildings CoS recommends that only one type of exit sign be utilized in a floor area.  Each floor should be consistent with either ‘running man’ or ‘Exit’ signs but not both. Multi-tenant buildings with no common public spaces: each tenant space would be considered as a separate floor area as per the recommendations above.

Multi-tenant buildings with shared common public spaces (ie Shopping Malls): CoS  permits mixed signage to allow for mulit-tenant buildings to phase in the new ‘running man’ signs. Each tenant space can be treated individually and CoS recommends that only one type of exit sign be utilized in a tenant space. The common corridors and spaces can contain mixed signage.