Structures Métropolitaines: tenants worried about elevator service

The building mentioned above belongs to Structures Métropolitaines (SMI) who have thousands of tenants in L'Île-des-Sœurs. The incident reported by Le Magazine happened in August and according to some tenants, SMI has not yet solved the elevator problem. A woman who lives on the 11th floor of a building located in 100 Gaspé Street confirmed that the telephone line inside the elevators makes it impossible for tenants to communicate with a “live” person who can provide assurance and send a technician urgently. A call made on November 30, from this building elevator, for example, was forwarded to a voice mail system. Another test, conducted on Monday, December 15 at about 7:35 am made a connection to a representative of Thyssen but the line was so bad that it was impossible to make the other party understand what was being said.

In addition to filing a complaint with SMI’s head office in Calgary – the Boardwalk company – the woman contacted Verdun Borough City Hall and Montreal’s Fire Department. She received courteous responses from them, but as of press time, nothing has yet been settled.

In a letter addressed to some tenants, SMI Operations Director Ronald Lapierre explained the procedure when there is an emergency call coming from an elevator telephone. He said that messages are directly forwarded to the Thyssen company; Thyssen then sends a message to its technician and also calls the SMI representative so that this representative can come to the building in question. He also confirmed that the provincial Régie du Bâtiment regularly conducts building inspections and inspectors immediately advise the Régie of anomalies detected.

In light of these contradictions, Le Magazine attempted to contact a representative from SMI to obtain more details. With the assistance of Mr. Lapierre, Le Magazine was able to speak with David Mc Ilven, Director for Community Development at Boardwalk’s head office in Calgary. He spoke about the matter.

He confirmed that SMI is not sparing any effort to ensure the smooth functioning of elevators and emergency telephones. Informed of communication problems relating to emergency telephones, he said that immediate measures will be taken to remedy them. He also pointed out that some elevators are not equipped with emergency telephones; in such cases, users must press a button to activate the alarm.

Mr. Mc Ilven is encouraging residents to report, without delay, any anomalies they discover. He added that Boardwalk takes the interests of its tenants seriously by providing comfortable apartments and a high level of service.