Toon Dreessen is president of Architects DCA. He is a past president of the Ontario Association of Architects.

Building codes represent a jurisdiction’s minimum standard for safe structures, and were originally developed with the primary goal of occupant safety. Over time, they have evolved beyond basic requirements for a structure’s sturdiness, and now include rules for maintaining occupants’ general health and wellness, including ventilation, access to natural light, physical accessibility and energy efficiency. But do our current codes go far enough in sustaining our general well-being, or could we be doing more?

In Canada, building codes are often playing catch-up with the times, and can vary in confusing ways from province to province. The latest version of the National Building Code of Canada took years to develop. The 2020 edition of the NBC wasn’t published until March, 2022, and since then has required additional time for adoption by provincial jurisdictions. There is a separate Ontario Building Code, which contains modified elements of the NBC but dates from a previous version. The current OBC is from 2012, was amended as recently as 2022, and includes requirements for durability that the NBC does not.