OPSI - UNENACTED working proposal

v308 | 2026-10-28T08:15:44+00:00 | Corpus 85

DRAFT REGULATION OF THE MINISTER RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE FIRE SAFETY ACT

REGULATION RESPECTING EXTERNAL ACCESS TO THE CENTRAL REGISTRY OF OPSI

I - AUTHORIZED PERSONS AND ORGANIZATIONS

Section 1 | ART_FZVMKM784407RH57 | Version 13

This regulation is made by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act under section 42 of the Act, in accordance with the Regulations Act. Access rights conferred directly by the Act remain unchanged; technical access conditions fall under the regulation provided for in section 17.

The following may obtain access where it is necessary for the exercise of their functions:

1° municipalities;

2° fire safety services;

3° government departments and public bodies;

4° members of other professional orders and other persons authorized to perform a professional activity giving rise to a filing in the registry, within the limits of section 19 of the Act;

5° other competent authorities;

6° insurers, exclusively within the limits set out in section 23 of the Act;

(7) expressly delegated central labour organizations and legally representative independent associations, exclusively under section 24 of the Act;

8° any other category authorized by the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act in accordance with the Act.

Professional access under paragraph 4° and access by members of the Order arise directly under section 19 of the Act; they do not require authorization by that Minister creating an additional category. Authorization is verified with respect to the professional activity concerned. A person who merely uploads a document does not acquire this access by virtue of the upload.

The Régie du bâtiment du Québec retains the full, permanent, province-wide, read-only institutional access under section 20 of the Act. Individuals who exercise that access receive their own authorizations under section 26 of the Act and section 7 of this regulation, including full access where justified by their lawful mandate.

Coroners responsible for an investigation or inquest and duly authorized members of police forces have the same limited consultation rights under section 21 of the Act, independently of a general authorization by that Minister. They may access only records needed for a specific investigation or inquest, subject to any authorization required by law, and have no general or permanent access right.

Ordinary consultation rights, dashboards and API access under this regulation open only for regions where the documentary registry is legally activated and the service is available. No consultation covers transitional volume declarations alone.

The public membership roll, authorized-organization directory and competent-authorities directory mentioned in section 33 of the Act are not external access interfaces to confidential files governed by this regulation. Their independent second server may not reuse central-registry credentials to expose protected data; published fields remain limited to information legally available.

Section 2 | ART_J2SPBMV9RBHS2K6L | Version 7

Access is limited to information necessary for the function performed.

As an institution, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec retains full province-wide read-only access under section 20 of the Act. Its individual users’ access is limited to their respective mandates, which may cover the entire registry where provincial, strategic, coordination, oversight, analysis or audit duties lawfully justify it. Administrative confirmations of consultation or acknowledgment of notices received as a recipient under the “EDF_ — RBQ” routing category remain possible without changing professional records. These accesses remain subject to authentication, justification and audit logging.

Each authority’s administrative triage key is linked to the building’s EDF_ identifier to organize that authority’s records. The Régie’s province-wide dashboard identifies “EDF_ — RBQ” records by ground and regulatory area, including no designated authority and additional grounds prescribed by regulation, without conferring legal jurisdiction on the Régie by default. These administrative identifiers do not change other access rights, particularly those of insurers.

For a coroner or a duly authorized member of a police force, access covers only buildings, events, reports, supporting records, versions, histories and audit entries relevant and necessary to the identified investigation or inquest file. Consultation remains read-only, subject to legally required authorizations; it authorizes neither exploration beyond that file, alteration of information nor permanent access to the registry.

Section 3 | ART_5QZ9AAPF3P2XYBBW | Version 4

Under section 72 of the Act, the Order may, before regional activation, grant limited pilot access to a competent authority whose mandate and authorization have been verified. Access covers only available official files lawfully falling within that mandate.

Permissions are individual and may be restricted by duration, territory, EDF_ identifier, document category, dashboard feature and API operation. The Order may narrow, suspend or withdraw them without creating a new user category or expanding an authorization from the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act.

Consultations and operations are authenticated, justified and logged. As an exception to activation restrictions on ordinary interfaces, the API may be used only within this authorized pilot scope. Access does not open data from the pre-registry’s volume declarations alone and does not constitute mandatory regional activation.

Section 4 | ART_PU16E9LMTU6S3P5A | Version 4

For an insurer, access is limited to a building it insures or may insure, and only to the existence of a non-compliance notice requiring action that remains in force, its nature and the correction deadline. Merely requesting a new professional assessment does not suspend the notice's effects.

The insurer has no access to any non-compliance under documented action or reporting-exempt non-compliance, report or plan, supporting document, identity of the professional, or any other part of the record.

A notice that ceases to carry status “non-compliance requiring action” or is closed by a correction notice ceases to be accessible to the insurer.

Until an eligible new classification or correction has been filed, the notice retains the status requiring action and remains accessible within the limits of this section. Privately requesting a second opinion creates no administrative-dispute indicator and does not disclose supporting materials, arguments or professional identities.

Where an insurer actually covering a building has consulted a non-compliance requiring action notice, the registry must retain the association between that insurer, the building and the notice for as long as legally necessary to notify cessation of that status, subject to applicable personal-information retention rules. Once coverage ends or that purpose ceases, the association is deleted or anonymized as soon as no other legal retention duty applies.

When that notice ceases to have the status 'non-compliance requiring action', the registry automatically sends the insurer an electronic notification containing only the notice identifier, building identifier and date and time the status ceased. The registry retains technical proof of dispatch or availability and, when obtainable, proof of receipt, without treating dispatch alone as receipt.

For a worker-representative organization covered by section 24 of the Act, the registry verifies identity, legal representation authority and the workers’ current presence or assignment in the building. A central labour organization also provides proof of the association’s affiliation and written delegation, their scope and validity. An independent association proves it is affiliated with no central labour organization. Workers’ names are not required by default to establish access scope.

Rights are limited to verified buildings, authorized data, individually designated users and the period during which the conditions remain valid. Access is suspended as soon as evidence is insufficient or outdated. An affiliated association and its local branches have no autonomous access: the central labour organization exercises the authority delegated in writing. An independent association has its own institutional account under the same controls. Anonymous shared accounts and duplicate access by a central organization and its affiliate are prohibited.

When a notice consulted by an eligible organization no longer has the status requiring action, the registry immediately removes it from the accessible scope and may notify only the notice and building identifiers and the date and time that status ended. No new status, document, reason, history or professional identity is disclosed; an organization that no longer meets the access conditions receives no further notification.

Consultations through the interface or API are subject to equivalent controls over purpose, individual authentication, limited scope, logging, prohibition of prospecting and bulk extraction. Minimal evidence of affiliation, delegation and assignment, named authorizations and notification links are retained only for the period legally necessary, after which they are deleted or anonymized, subject to applicable evidence and retention duties.

The insurer receives the minimal incidental-origin indication authorized by section 23 of the Act solely to apply the prior telephone contact and three-complete-day grace period enacted by section 48. The insurer retains evidence of the actual telephone conversation, written confirmation and pre-increase status check in its own file. These records are not filed as professional reports in the registry. The registry logs the status consultation; a transmission or consultation does not prove a telephone conversation with the insured. This exception expands no other access.

Section 5 | ART_AQT1WNKRDT0S6V5E | Version 7

The notification does not disclose the new status, the reason for the change, a correction notice, any report or supporting document, or the identity of the authorized person. It confers no additional access right.

The registry separately logs issuance, delivery attempts, acknowledgements of receipt obtained, failures and retries in accordance with section 14 of the Act. A failed technical delivery is followed by a secure retry within a reasonable time, without disclosing additional information. These steps do not extend the surcharge period permitted under section 50.1 of the Insurers Act, enacted by section 48 of the Act.

An insurer currently covering a building may consult only the information permitted by section 23 of the Act through the interface or, with applicable authorization, through an API. For a building only under consideration for insurance, the insurer may carry out only a targeted, authenticated, justified and logged consultation through the interface or API; automated exploration of multiple buildings, prospecting and bulk queries remain prohibited. The registry does not permit systematic accumulation of results, a private parallel database, resale or redistribution, or reuse for a different quotation without a lawful basis. Only items strictly needed for the insurance decision or required to be retained by law may be kept, including insofar as section 11 of the Act respecting the protection of personal information in the private sector applies.

For inactive regions, the absence of documents or EDF_ identifiers is not an anomaly giving rise to broader access rights or a special alert. Confidentiality protections remain fully applicable.

For a delegated central labour organization or independent association authorized under section 24 of the Act, end-of-status notifications follow the same minimal content, receipt and logging restrictions and confer no right concerning an insurance contract, premium or refund. The building connection and, where required, delegation must remain valid when the notification is sent.

II - DELEGATION

Section 6 | ART_5YK3HVYF7XXNCGKA | Version 5

The Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act may delegate operational management of access accounts to the bodies responsible for authorized individuals, within the limits of section 26 of the Act. The delegation specifies delegated functions, required controls, duration and withdrawal arrangements; it transfers neither the regulatory powers of that Minister nor any access right broader than that permitted by law.

Section 7 | ART_504RTAYFU4YDAUJR | Version 4

The delegate body maintains a record of individual authorizations identifying each user, their duties, authorized territories and record categories, API privileges, effective date, and term or review date. It verifies identity and mandate before granting access, restricts rights to functional needs, amends or withdraws them when the mandate changes, and reviews irregular use. It may authorize access to the entire registry where legally recognized responsibilities require it, without presuming that scope for other users.

In the case of the coroner's office and police forces, the organization concerned confirms the person's identity and individual authorization, their capacity and the verifiable reference of the official file before consultation is opened. Rights granted are limited to the files concerned, reviewed when the mandate changes and end no later than when no longer necessary. A new investigation or inquest requires separate justification; the status of coroner or police officer does not, by itself, open the entire registry.

III - CONDITIONS OF CONSULTATION

Section 8 | ART_2GSUFSDBTTWHNZGM | Version 4

Before each search or consultation, the user must state a reason related to the user’s functions. For an insurance quotation, the reason identifies the building and purpose of the one-off lookup; this declaration authorizes neither bulk consultation nor automated exploration of other buildings, through the interface or the API. For this consultation, the registry retains a reference linking the search to a real, identifiable quotation file that can be verified during an audit. No supporting documents are routinely required to be filed or retained solely for this purpose; existing access limits and audit powers remain unchanged.

For a labour federation covered by section 24 of the Act, every consultation must be linked to an identified building, a still-valid reference showing union affiliation and worker assignment, a workplace risk-prevention purpose and the identity of the authorized person. The registry verifies the permissible scope at query time without publishing or routinely requiring workers’ names.

Before the first consultation relating to an investigation or inquest, the coroner or authorized member of a police force identifies their organization and the official file by a verifiable internal reference, states the lawful purpose of access and, to the extent possible, specifies the buildings, events or records sought. Each subsequent consultation remains linked to that reference. The registry verifies that the requested consultation falls within the applicable authorization, without requiring public disclosure of confidential details of the investigation or inquest.

Section 9 | ART_VGKK04HF9YBN3VM1 | Version 2

Access may not be used:

1° out of curiosity;

2° for personal purposes;

3° for commercial purposes unrelated to authorized functions;

4° to create an unauthorized parallel database. For insurers, systematic accumulation of consulted information, standalone archiving unrelated to the application, resale, unauthorized redistribution and reuse for other searches or contracts without a lawful basis are also prohibited. Retention strictly necessary for the insurance decision or required by law remains permitted subject to personal-information protection requirements.

Section 10 | ART_L8XEX1LRNFA6ME9F | Version 5

Bulk extractions are prohibited unless specifically authorized on the basis of a legal or administrative necessity. For buildings only under consideration for an insurance quotation, no ordinary access permission authorizes automated or mass searches; only a one-off consultation through the interface or API is permitted. For a labour federation, access through the interface or API never extends to all employers in a region, an industry or affiliated organizations; it remains limited to each building with a verified current connection to represented workers, with no building-wide scans or general extraction.

Search and statistical functions in the Régie’s province-wide dashboard, including API operations within the individual authorizations of its users, do not constitute prohibited bulk extraction solely because of their province-wide scope. Bulk extraction of identifying documents remains subject to specific authorization and safeguards; no operation permits alteration of records or notices without separate lawful authority.

IV - LOGGING AND AUDIT

Section 11 | ART_L49VJDJM0Z2RED4E | Version 6

For each external registry access, an EDJ_ entry in the log under section 14 of the Act identifies the user’s personal SGN_ identifier, stated reason, represented organization, scope of authorization relied upon, outcome and channel, including the interface or API, without recording more personal information than necessary. Signing a consultation or retrieval of a copy attests to the operation, not the professional content of the document viewed.

For a coroner or a duly authorized member of a police force, every search, opening, consultation of a version or history, consultation of the audit log, authorized extraction and transmission also records the investigation or inquest reference, the police force or coroner's organization, the user's identity, date, time, scope of the data concerned and outcome of the operation. These entries remain protected, unalterable and accessible only within the limits of applicable law.

Section 12 | ART_6HYRU9RDWN7RMKMS | Version 6

Delegated access management includes regular review of authorizations and their associated log entries. The delegate body informs the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act of access clearly outside assigned mandates; consultation of the log for that review remains subject to section 14 of the Act.

The coroner's office and each police force authorizing access review the authorizations granted and notify the access administrator of any file closure, change of mandate or use manifestly unrelated to the investigation or inquest. Removing authorization does not erase lawfully retained consultation records. This monitoring creates no new investigative or disciplinary authority for the Order over those bodies.

Section 13 | ART_5JLXDH593SQT8UWU | Version 2

The Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act may carry out or require periodic audits.

V - SUSPENSION AND WITHDRAWAL

Section 14 | ART_ZA7J64WSQTU7YV3N | Version 2

Access may be suspended immediately where there are reasonable grounds to believe that there has been:

1° abusive use;

2° access without a valid reason;

3° prohibited disclosure;

4° compromise of credentials;

5° a risk to the security of the registry.

Section 15 | ART_G5M24X0AHQ4TCXLJ | Version 2

The delegate body informs the Minister responsible for the administration of the Fire Safety Act and the Order of any significant incident.

Section 16 | ART_TZ5CP1DEW8YLQCFR | Version 1

Pursuant to section 75 of the Act, sections 3 of this regulation are repealed upon completion of mandatory regional deployment.

The repeal has no retroactive effect and does not erase any file, vested right, payment or earlier act lawfully established.