Have you ever been abused by the Electrical Safety Authority? Is it a stupid question?
An ESA inspector promises to come during a certain period of time (from 12pm to 4pm) arranged well in advance. But he never shows up. You wait for hours wasting your precious time. Yet, you get no compensation for the ESA inspector fault that has ruined your entire week schedule, created tremendous problems to you and all your customers, and cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost revenue!
The waiting, delays, and losses are so devastating to electrical contractors that we try to skip inspections and avoid trouble whenever possible.
ESA unfair conduct toward us causes a Catch 22 cycle, where the only way to avoid the abuse is not to pull a mandatory permit, which is in itself a violation. No matter what we do LECs always waste time, money, and suffer losses.
Quoting the ESA CSR, "This notification is scheduled for final inspection for July 10/14 but it isn't a guaranteed appointment. The inspector will try to get there that day depending on his work load."
In plain English it means that at the ESA we do not care if you scheduled the appointment in advance. We have promised to come but did not show up. So what? The inspector was busy with important things. You were busy too? So what? We do not care if you had been waiting for 1 or 8 hours, wasted your whole day and lost hundreds of dollars. This means nothing to us. We have all the power and this is important, we have your money, we are the boss and you are nothing. So pay, wait, bow your knees before the master and shut up if you do not want any trouble!
Do you think it should be the other way around? And the ESA inspectors shall:
- pay a substantial fine for being late or not showing up?
- compensate electrical contractor for loss the inspector has caused?
- shorten the appointment window to 30 minutes? Example: ESA inspector must come from 3 pm to 3:30 pm.
- arrange for a shift work, extend its regular working hours and charge regular inspection rates from 8 am to 3 am? It gets the money for the service, so ESA should deliver services the way LECs want them delivered and not the other way around.
- and make a next day inspection available any time of the day, especially from April to December or face stiff penalties.
- a simple free of charge procedure must be introduced to enable electrical contractors to file for compensation. Any other person or entity should also be able to quickly and easily object the ESA or file a complaint. Any such objection, complaint or appeal should be judged or resolved by a panel with strong representation from ISB, ESA critics, opponents, etc. Other persons should be allowed to represent the plaintiff, appellant, complainant and/or act as witnesses. Public interests and benefits must have the decisive power.
- The current practice of abuse where the ESA acts as a:
judge
enforcer
lawmaker
persecutor
prosecutor
investigator
decision maker
monopolistic dictator
assigning huge pay packages to its executives
with financial authority over electrical workers to establish fees
and to collect payments, penalties and fines all at the same time, must stop now - we, electrical workers pay fees to the ESA. Then ESA often uses our own money to persecute us. It pays money collected from us to its attorneys to act against us. At the same time we cover our litigation expenses out of own pockets. We pay twice - for persecution against us and for defending ourselves from that persecution! This practice is profoundly unfair and must stop right away. The ESA must pay for the opponents' defense counsels, lawyers, experts and others with the money we have already paid to the ESA
- the act, regulations and ESA governance must be modified to reflect all these changes
Electrical contractors, let's demand a fair treatment starting today. Let's protect ourselves from abuse and oblige ESA to pay for the losses they caused. Let's create a table of mandatory compensation that ESA must pay for late arrival or for not showing up. And let's make it a law today.
Let's make it clear that we pay for inspections, therefore we want the inspections when we want them. NO exceptions! So ESA, move your asses and get it done!
We, electrical contractors are the ESA's customers, we pay them money and ESA must serve us the way we want to be served. We are the boss. Not the other way around!
Introducing shift work, extending ESA regular working hours and charging regular inspection rates from 8 am to 3 am would cut the inspection fees! Subcontracting out, outsourcing, using self-employed inspectors would automatically & effortlessly resolve this & many other ESA problems!
Tell the ESA what you think via email ESA.Cambridge@electricalsafety.on.ca
Tell your MPP.
Email the Minister directly Ms. Lisa M Thompson. Or visit web site of the Minister of Government and Consumer Services, who is accountable for the ESA activities.
Or publicly share your own story if you experienced weird ESA rules, abuse, neglect, unfair treatment, overcharge, crime, etc. Or join us in a class action and sue the ESA if you think they are parasites!
When a bunch of abused folks speaks out, nothing happens.
If there are hundred or thousand of us, we will prevail and restore the justice, common sense and fairness!
