Thank you.
Mr. Marks, thank you for being a firefighter for the past 28 years. Thank you for your contribution and for your service to the country. As it happens, I'm also from the city of Toronto.
You just voiced your concern about the use of a combustible wood-frame structure in a real fire situation. Similar to your comments, though, the committee heard from firefighters who have already expressed the concern, from a health and safety perspective, for firefighters and residents from engineered wood buildings.
On the other hand, the past president of the B.C. association for fire chiefs, Mr. Garis, describes this fire safety concern, and I just quote here, as a “red herring”. According to Fire Chief Garis, “Once [wood buildings] are constructed and operating, they are no different than any other building constructed of other material.” As a result, the B.C. association of fire chiefs has already endorsed the B.C. code change as long as the buildings are equipped with a sufficient number of sprinklers and smoke alarms.
Can you give us some comments about the endorsement made by Mr. Garis?