Building and Fire Codes are a necessity in modern societies that value common goals towards safety, energy efficiency, construction practices, and other aspects regulated by those codes. It wasn’t always this way, however. It has been a long, iterative process of incremental changes that have brought us to the current version of the National Building Code and the provincial building codes based on it. The codes we rely on today to construct safe and durable buildings are, in essence, living documents that not only took generations to develop but are constantly evolving with every issue released, directed by new building materials and technologies, construction practices, and government mandates driven by public and industry influence. Canada has one of the world’s most developed and uniform building code standards in the world. Being such a large country spanning several climate zones, the development of a national building code with a high degree of uniformity requires careful consideration of how to apply building code requirements, specifically those to do with building envelopes and other aspects that are temperature and climate dependent.

The move towards a nation-wide, harmonized model code originated in the 1930’s during the Great Depression. During this time, homelessness became an issue of national concern prompting the federal government to create the first federal housing program in 1937( Ref 1). This eventually led to the creation of Canada’s first National Building Code (NBC).

Prior to the release of the first NBC, most buildings in Canada were constructed with little to no building standards. This resulted in a mishmash of construction practices, often ill advised by officials with insufficient knowledge and experience. Without a national model code to follow, it was mainly left to municipal officials to dictate building practices which could often be heavily influenced by local businesses and politicians with specific interests. In Canada, it is provincial and territorial governments, not federal, that are charged with publishing, distributing, and enforcing building and fire codes to its municipalities. In fact, it has been this way since Canada’s Constitution Act of 1867. To avoid the problems of too many disparate building standards, in 1937 the federal government tasked the National Research Council (NRC) to establish a model building code to be used by all municipalities across Canada. The first National Building Code of Canada was published soon afterwards in 1941(Ref 2).

During the Great Depression, housing construction in Canada was sluggish and during World War II it was nearly at a stand still, but after the end of the Second World War in 1945, construction was booming across the country and demand for the NBC increased. Builders and others in the industry called for an updated version, specifically one that did not require architects and engineers for small, simple buildings. This prompted the government to provide more resources and financial support towards developing building codes and standards. The NRC established the Division of Building Research which eventually became the Institute for Research and Construction (NRC-IRC) in 1986. In 1948 the NRC also created the Associate Committee on the National Building Code (ACNBC) which had several mandates. In 1950 it created a “Code for Dwelling Construction” and in 1951, “A Building Code for Small Municipalities.” These publications would later become components to Part 9 of the National Building Code. The Committee was also instrumental in supporting the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) to provide adequate, affordable, and safe housing for all Canadians. The overarching mandate of the ACNBC, however, was to update and maintain the NBC on an ongoing basis. The second and third editions of the NBC were released in 1953 and 1960 with newer editions being subsequently published on an approximate 5-year cycle. (Ref 3).

The first edition of the National Building Code was born out of a well funded national program that compiled all the smartest and most experienced architects, engineers, and specialists in the building and construction industry. Prior to this, there was no other reliable reference, hence, the 1941 NBC became the new gold standard for building construction. It was widely accepted across Canada and even garnered international attention as an example of how a harmonized national building standard can provide benefits in construction efficiency and economy. As more and more jurisdictions began adopting the NBC, they also began to realize ways in which they could improve or change it to suit their area’s specific needs. British Columbia began publishing its own provincial building code in 1985 (Ref 4) and Alberta had already been using the building code since 1974 (the 1974 Alberta Building Regulations which is the 1970 National Building Code with variations) (Ref 5). Some provinces had yet to adopt the National Codes. Prince Edward Island only recently became the last province in Canada to fully adopt the NBC for all its buildings on March 31, 2021 (Ref 6). According to the Constitution, the federal government still does not have jurisdiction over building code enactment or enforcement but its desire to maintain a harmonized national standard for all building related codes is still very much present. By the late 1980’s the ACNBC realized that adherence to the model code was waning and it was decided that action needed to be taken.

In 1991 the Associate Committee on the National Building Code (ACNBC) amalgamated with the Associate Committee on the National Fire Code (ACNFC) to become the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (CCBFC) (Ref 7). One of the main intents of the CCBFC was to maintain harmony within all national, provincial, and territorial building and fire codes. A strategy employed by the CCBFC to help facilitate this was the use of objective based codes. This was rolled out in the 2005 National Codes.

“Previous editions of the NBC, NFC and NPC had equivalency provisions that permitted the use of materials, equipment, systems, methods of design or construction procedures not specifically prescribed. When something new was proposed, however, it had to be demonstrated that it provided the level of performance required by the codes. This “equivalency” approach was retained in the 2005 objective-based codes and converted into the “alternative solution” compliance path to the codes. Code users now have the choice of using the “acceptable
solutions” prescribed in the codes or demonstrating that a proposed “alternative solution” provides at least an equivalent performance. Converting these codes to an objective-based format has made them more accommodating to innovation by clarifying their scope as well as the intent behind their requirements. Each code provision is now supplemented by clearly stated objectives, functional statements and intents.” (Ref 8)

The introduction of objectives in the 2005 release of the National Codes was meant to provide a consistent or “harmonized” means of evaluating and accepting alternative solutions to prescriptive code requirements. Today, all Canadian codes, with the exception of the National Farm Building Code which has not been updated since 1995, are objective-based (Ref 9). The British Columbia Building Code is also coming back into alignment with the National Building Code. Nearly all the numbering and descriptions provided in the prescriptive requirements of Articles and Sentences are identical with very few deviations. With these small, incremental changes, Canada is migrating back towards a harmonized national code standard.

References
1 Archer, John W. “A Brief History of the National Building Code of Canada.” NRC Publications.
January 23, 2003.
2 Author not specified. “Canada’s National Model Construction Codes Development System.” NRC
Publications – Institute for Research in Construction.
3 Archer, John W. “A Brief History of the National Building Code of Canada” NRC Publications.
January 23, 2003.
4 Office of Housing and Construction Standards. “History of British Columbia Building Regulations.”
Office of Housing and Construction Standards, 2015. https://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/farmingnatural-
resources-and-industry/construction-industry/building-codes-andstandards/
guides/history_of_the_codes_2015_update.pdf
5 Author not specified. “Historical editions of Codes Canada publications (1941-1998).” Government
of Canada. https://nrc.canada.ca/en/certifications-evaluations-standards/codes-canada/codescanada-
publications/historical-editions-codes-canada-publications-1941-1998
6 Author not specified. “National Building Code standards in effect March 32, 2021”.
https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/news/national-building-code-standards-effect-march-31-
2021
7 Archer, John W. “A Brief History of the National Building Code of Canada.” NRC Publications.
January 23, 2003.
8 Author not specified. “Canada’s National Model Construction Codes Development System.” NRC
Publications – Institute for Research in Construction.
9 Rymell. Robert. “Code development’s past, present, and future.” Construction Canada. 2017.
https://www.constructioncanada.net/code-developments-past-present-future/