Authorized elevator owners, licensees, and service providers benefit from an elevator outage tracking application, but there isn't one for property managers to see how service providers compare across the city, for policymakers to understand how the industry compares across cities or more broadly, or for citizens and residents who live with the consequences of elevator service outages, in particular those who rely on elevators for accessibility.

Elevators in public spaces (or in commercial buildings) are particularly important for accessibility. At least in Vancouver, there is no centralized resource for tracking elevator service outages across transit stations, libraries, community centres, and other public spaces. A vision of this application is to allow transit users and other members of the public to report elevator outages in public spaces to help others plan their routes and trips.

The primary purpose of this site is to help researchers and policymakers better aggregate data on elevator service outages, and to provide a resource for tenants to understand local regulations as far as what is expected from building management regarding communication and support during elevator outages.

In some municipalities, a working elevator is an essential service for residential buildings over three stories. See the city specific information section below for more localized information. Residential tenants can file for dispute resolution through their local residental tenancy branch if essential services are denied for prolonged periods, however there is no exact threshold duration for what constitutes a prolonged period.

Elevator outages appear to be a common occurrence across Canada, though the problem is poorly documented outside of complaints. This video from Uytae Lee's About Here series explains some of the challenges with elevator construction and maintenance in North America.

This application was created as a coping mechanism for a particularly long service outage in the winter of 2023 in Vancouver.