Residential Sprinkler Tax Incentive Policy

In 2010, City Council adopted a new building Bylaw 7-2010.  Section 9.3 of the bylaw requires residential fire sprinklers to be installed in all new construction in certain areas on the outskirts of the City.  In 2013, this bylaw was amended to add in certain areas of the City that had been annexed into the City over the previous three years.

As the City grows, properties are much farther from the fire hall and response time goals to those areas cannot be met in a timely fashion.  Council has accepted a 10 minute intervention time from the time the call is made until firefighters are fighting a fire.  The City will eventually require additional fire halls, however, residential sprinklers can extend the response times to the point where the construction and manning of additional fire halls can be indefinitely delayed saving the taxpayers millions of dollars in capital construction costs and annual operating costs. 

In 2015, Council adopted a Residential Sprinkler Tax Incentive Policy.  The intent of this policy is to ease the burden of costs incurred for the installation of residential sprinklers in homes that would not be required to have sprinklers by any other Act, Code, or Regulation.  The incentive is for 50% of the annual municipal portion of the property taxes over a period of 5 years to a maximum of $4,000.