As reported on CBC News, Jerry Roitelman describes his latest brush with the City of Winnipeg inspections branch in some very direct language.

“It’s beyond frustrating. It’s asinine. It’s ridiculous. It is a system that is built to cause failure [so] that you cannot win,” says the owner of Roy’s Electric.

It is yet another complaint against a department that has seen 20 staff fired, suspended or reprimanded this year after a video commissioned by an anonymous group found several inspectors using work time for personal matters.

In  August, Roitelman, who took over Roy’s Electric from his father in 2004, was hoping to close an electrical permit he had opened for a residential customer.

He was given an appointment in a four-hour window on Aug. 27.

That afternoon he got a voicemail on his mobile phone that the inspector was on the way. Roitelman tried phoning back to the department as he left his office for the residence, about a 10-minute drive.

“I get to the site and he’s already long gone. I got to the site just before 3 p.m.,” Roitelman says.

So he turned around and headed back to the office. Twenty-five minutes later an email popped up in his inbox “saying that I’ve been fined $158 for not being at the site,” a frustrated Roitelman said.

“I listen to his voicemail and he said he was on his way at 2:39 p.m. Well, given the time frame, as he’s 10-15 minutes away, he should have been there the same time I got there.”

The next morning Roitelman phoned the assistant chief inspector at the city.

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