A notice from engineering specialist, Can-Explore, posted at the main entrance of the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC), Allan Memorial Institute (AMI) in downtown Montreal, confirms three-days of inspections by drone of the buildings exterior facade.

To guard the public against crumbling concrete cladding and collapsing or cracking facades, the Quebec government, on March 18, 2013, passed Public Buildings Safety Act. Bill 122 of the Act requires buildings with five floors or more above ground to be subject to verification and maintenance.

Does the AMI tower qualify the property for the five-floor minimum?

The province construction, safety and building watchdog, Régie du Bâtiment du Québec (RBQ), requires the mandatory facade inspections be performed by an architect or an engineer every five years. 

Images from the drone orbiting the AMI’s facade will shed light on the building’s exterior structure. However, its presence raises the question – Why? An answer the posted memo, unfortunately, did not provide. 

• CURIOUS – One may ask why the MUHC scheduled the inspection during the winter month of January and not in the coming spring, just weeks away? Who ordered the inspections??
• FRUGAL – Does the engineering firm offer a discount rate during the ice and snow months of the year? Frugality is always welcomed in cash strapped health care networks.
• CATASTROPHIC – Is a developer interested in the real estate, are they assessing their possible investment.
• OPTIMISTIC – The MUHC with support from the province’s health ministry, want to know the cost of returning this gem, back into the in-patient psychiatric healing centre it once was.

A list of questions has been emailed to the MUHC communications department, and we will follow up here when and if a reply is received.

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