The three-day Task Group (TG) meeting was chaired by Kevin Harding, Director of Innovation and Safety Policy with BC’s Ministry of Housing, acting on behalf of Task Group Chair Ulrik Seward. The meeting was supported by Behnoush Etemadi and Nick Yu of Codes Canada.  

At this point, the TG only has a mandate to address Part 3 requirements.  CHBA's letter sent to the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes advocating for the expansion of the single egress requirements to Part 9 of the National Building Code was not discussed with this meeting since the letter is still under consideration by the Board. 

Day 1 included an overview of National Research Council (NRC) research completed to date, a literature review conducted by Carleton University, discussion of the Task Group’s mandate, and reports from task and working groups. Day 2 featured a presentation on Sweden’s regulations for single-egress buildings, followed by continued task and working group reporting. Working groups on Environmental Scan, Accessibility, Mixed Use, Building Maintenance and Impact Analysis consist solely of members of the TG-SE, whereas sub-task groups on Risk Assessment, and Fire Services were created to enable full participation by external non-members of TG-SE. Day 3 focused primarily on drafting a report consolidating recommendations from the various groups.  One of the sub-task group reports included an advocacy document from the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs titled "Ensuring one way out doesn't become no way out", which summarizes the fire chiefs' concerns with single egress stair designs and strongly opposes a move in this direction based on their capacity and various risks that could impact egress times in single-egress buildings.  It also warned against use of examples from other countries with different forms of construction.

Key observations from the meeting included a generally balanced approach that considered costs, benefits, and risks associated with single-egress buildings. The Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes directed the Task Group to focus on enabling single‑egress construction on small, constrained lots for buildings up to 18 metres in height. While fire services continue to express reservations as noted above, those directly involved in the Task Group appear increasingly open to the concept. 

It was also noted that:

• single‑egress designs may facilitate elevator installation, improving accessibility, and 
• that a letter from the Canadian Association of Fire Chiefs had been submitted to CBHCC a day before the         TG-SE meeting but had yet to be shared with the Task Group.  

For any questions or a copy of the agenda package (too large to post), please reach out to Jack.Mantyla@chba.ca