Important

This public review is now closed.
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This national public review ran from May 27, 2024 to July 29, 2024.

The Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes (CBHCC) invited code users, the Codes community, and the public to participate in the spring 2024 public review of proposed changes to the 2020 editions of the National Model Codes. The proposed changes included in this public review addressed the following topics in the National Building Code of Canada, the National Fire Code of Canada, the National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings, and the National Plumbing Code of Canada:

National Building Code of Canada

  • Accessibility – inclusive signage
  • Accessibility – visitability and adaptability of dwelling units
  • Alteration of existing buildings – housing and small buildings
  • Automatic sprinkler system
  • Building fire safety
  • Climatic loads
  • Earthquake design
  • Energy efficiency for houses
  • Firefighter safety objective
  • Large farm buildings
  • Overheating
  • Structural design

National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings

  • Defined terms
  • Climatic values

National Fire Code of Canada

  • Large farm buildings
  • Storage tanks

National Plumbing Code of Canada

  • Automatic shut-off of lavatory water flow
  • Defined terms
  • Piping
  • Potable water systems

See the summary of key proposed changes below for more details.

The purpose of this public review was to:

  • provide code users, the Codes community, and the public with a detailed look at proposed technical changes, and
  • seek comment on each proposed technical change as to whether it should be approved, altered or withdrawn.

The public review closed at 11:59 pm PDT on July 29, 2024, after which comments are no longer accepted.

The result of the public review process is a collection of comments on proposed code changes. The comments are sorted and analyzed by Codes Canada staff who are familiar with the development of the proposed changes, and who develop a draft resolution to each comment. The draft resolutions are validated by the responsible code development committees, which form the recommendations to the CBHCC.

The recommendations could be one of the following:

  • approve for publication,
  • revise for publication,
  • defer publication pending further development – subject to subsequent public review, or
  • withdraw proposed code change.

The CBHCC decides which changes will be published in the next edition of the National Model Codes based on the recommendations of the code development committees.

National Building Code of Canada (NBC)

Adaptable and visitable dwelling units (Part 2 of Division A and Part 3)

Introduces technical requirements for reinforcing stud walls in washrooms in dwelling units for the future installation of grab bars, focusing on where reinforcement is required on the wall and how strong the reinforcement is required to be. Also introduces technical requirements to make some dwelling units visitable, with a wider path of travel in living areas and a washroom with sufficient space to maneuver while using a mobility aid.

New OS sub-objective for firefighter safety (Part 2 of Division A)

Introduces the new OS6 sub-objective for firefighter safety in the NBC.

Overheating in new dwelling units (Parts 1, 6 and 9)

Adds a maximum indoor air temperature for new dwelling units.

Spatial separation of large farm buildings (Part 2)

Introduces the OP3 sub-objective and technical requirements for the spatial separation of large farm buildings in the NBC.

Update to structural design approach (Part 4)

Proposes the “uniform risk” approach to address the large geographic variations in risk of failure of buildings in Canada that resulted from the uniform hazard approach. Proposes new specified wind and snow loads to reflect “uniform risk” by reducing load factors to 1.0 and by using 1-in-500 wind loads and 1-in-1 000 snow loads. Revises snow load requirements to account for regional climatic effects on snow drifting on roofs by incorporating the winter average temperature and wind speed. Also introduces the thermal factor, CT, in the snow load formula to account for the reduction in roof snow depth due to heat loss.

Prescriptive compliance for Energy Performance Tier 1 (Part 9)

Provides energy-efficiency requirements for compliance with Tier 1 of the energy performance compliance prescriptive path in Section 9.36.

Specified wind and snow loads (Part 9)

Aligns Part 9 with the proposed changes in Part 4 to wind and snow loading to account for potential loading changes resulting from climate change.

Update to climatic data (Appendix C)

Proposes updating climatic data by selecting the worst-case-scenario data after taking into consideration future projections of climatic conditions in accordance with RCP8.5 over a 50-year time horizon.

National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings (NECB)

Updated climatic data (Table C-1)

Updates the climatic data in Table C-1 of the NECB to include projected future values for July design temperatures and hourly wind pressures resulting from climate change.

National Fire Code of Canada (NFC)

New OS sub-objective for firefighter safety (Part 2 of Division A)

Introduces the new OS6 sub-objective for firefighter safety in the NFC.

Application of the OP3 sub-objective to large farm buildings (Part 2 of Division A and Part 4)

Permits the application of the OP3 spatial separation sub-objective to large farm buildings covered by the NFC and attributes the OP3 sub-objective to some existing requirements.

National Plumbing Code of Canada (NPC)

Identification of storm and sanitary drainage systems (Part 2)

Requires storm and sanitary drainage systems to be identified permanently to allow contractors and municipal plumbing inspectors to differentiate between the various pipe applications in the field.

Protection of the potable water system (Part 2)

Introduces a reference to CSA B214:21, "Installation code for hydronic heating systems."