New Chairs - Diane Sullivan from TD Insurance, a previous member of the Commission and its Executive, was introduced as the new Chair of the Advisory Council.

As the provincial/territorial Co-Chairs rotate annually, Silvia Garcia, Vice President Regulation and Innovation at the Régie du bâtiment in Quebec was introduced as the new Co-Chair of the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes (CBHCC, the "Board").

Board Update - In his update, the NRC Co-Chair, Thomas Ferguson, advised ACHCC members that

• the new National Model Code Committees (NMCC) are ready to have their first meetings,
• the Board will invite NMCC Chairs to non-public meetings to provide advice to the Board,
• adjustments are possible to the NMCC membership,
• the majority of approvals for the 2025 proposed code changes will happen at the April Board meeting.

Prompted by CHBA's questions, the Co-Chairs confirmed that

• no Part 9 coordination committee will be created,
• the process for highlighting issues with code changes at this stage of imminent approval was highlighting any issues at the ACHCC or writing a letter to the Board (CHBA expressed process concerns with PCFs 1950 and 1951 (protection of the rough stud opening against water ingress)).

In  response to questions from other members NRC advised that

• Code Change Requests (CCR) cannot be published in NRC's online tracking database until they are translated, for which NRC does not have resources. NRC recommends asking Codes Canada staff,
• there may be a need to discuss why the NMCC Fire and Life Safety had no material interest members represented. NRC confirmed the continued interest in material associations' participation,
• the Board would discuss who to effectively address the issue of renewable and emission-free energy sources. NRC invited the utilities to public Board meetings and public consultation on new policy issues.,

Flood Resilience - The Advisory council reviewed a draft memo advising the Board on how to address flood resilience in codes. A lot of the issues suggested by CHBA were captured in the memo including the competing pressures on affordability and available land for new developments.

Single Egress - The ACHCC heard a presentation from Len Garis, former Fire Chief, on Single Egress.  Many members, including CHBA, commented that out-of-context presentations like this had not much value and that this was the second such presentation on single egress by the fire protection/fire safety lobby, a primer on the original code change request.

For more information, please contact Frank.Lohmann@chba.ca

Find the agenda documents below