Ottawa City Council voted Tuesday to support a provincial bill that would allow municipalities to make sprinkler systems mandatory in newly built homes.

The private member's bill has already died twice at Queen's Park, but Linda Jeffrey, the Liberal member of the legislature for Brampton-Springdale, is putting it forward again.

Ottawa councillors say they're hoping the Municipal Residential Sprinkler Act will make it through this time.

Ottawa homebuilders, however, say they aren't happy with the move.

John Herbert, the executive director of the Greater Ottawa Homebuilders' Association, said he predicts that homebuyers won't be happy either if the bill becomes law.

"Every new homebuyer in Ottawa will be paying $8,000 to $10,000 more because a few people on city council think that the odds of them dying are worth it," he said.

Unlike hard-wired smoke detectors that are already mandatory in new homes, said Herbert, the cost of installing a sprinkler system outweighs its benefit.

But working smoke detectors aren't always enough, said Bruce Montone, Ottawa's deputy fire chief. He says 46 people have died in residential fires in the city since 1995 — and 21 one of them had working smoke detectors in their homes.

"We think that's a modest investment for the level of safety that's improved," said Montone.

Since Vancouver made sprinklers mandatory in homes, said Montone, no one has died in a home that had both a working smoke detector and sprinkler system.

The bill has gained support in Ottawa, but whether the private member's bill passes at Queen's Park remains to be seen.