While Premier Dalton McGuinty says the province will wait before deciding on whether to make the retrofitting of nursing homes with sprinklers mandatory, many such recommendations have been made over the years.

At least 35 Ontario seniors have died in fires that occurred in nursing homes without sprinklers and thousands more live in such structures.

McGuinty's remarks on Wednesday come days after a fatal fire at a nursing home in Orillia.

The Monday blaze at the Muskoka Heights Retirement Residence left two dead and eight hospitalized in critical condition. Twenty-three people lived at the home.

The owner told the Toronto Star that the building didn't have a sprinkler system as it was constructed at a time when such systems weren't mandatory. The building had recently passed a fire inspection, he said.

A 10-member team from the Ontario Fire Marshal's Office is investigating the fire -- an investigation hampered by the thick layer of ice over the fire site. There are also concerns about the stability of the remaining structure.

However, the agency has repeatedly said that sprinklers are required in all nursing homes.

  • In 1995, a coroner's inquest into a fire at a Mississauga retirement home also recommended making such sprinkler systems mandatory.
  • In 1980, 25 seniors died in a Mississauga fire.  The inquest that followed called for sprinkler systems to be installed.

But successive governments have refused to act on those recommendations.

Community Safety Minister Rick Bartolucci said Wednesday that adding sprinkler systems to existing structures is difficult and expensive.

"I know it's complicated. I know it's not as simple as putting pipes in a wall," he said.

He also wants to wait for recommendations from the fire marshal.

The Niagara Falls Fire Department has already acted following a fire at the Cavendish nursing home that sent 11 to hospital.

There was no sprinkler system in the structure, so the department ordered all nursing homes to install sprinklers. Most affected homes have begun legal fights against the order, including ones funded by the provincial government.

Fire officials tell CTV Toronto privately that a sprinkler system would have saved lives in Orillia. They wonder what it will take to get the provincial government to act.

Progressive Conservative critic Peter Shurman said the McGuinty government should just get on with it and act on previous recommendations.

"I think we have to give them (seniors) greater protection," he said. "And when you're dealing with two deaths and possibly more ... we have to look seriously at recommendations that are already there in previous inquests ... and we have to consider sprinklers," he said.

In New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador, provincial governments have made sprinkler systems mandatory in all nursing homes.

In the United States, a law has been passed that will make them mandatory within four years.

With a report from CTV Toronto's Paul Bliss and files from The Canadian Press

With files from The Canadian Press