May 24, 2022
Real Estate News
RYPM
In an effort to show leadership in the fight against climate
change, municipal governments have been putting in place their own technical
requirements and green standards for developers and builders to follow.
It’s great that civic brass and politicians at the municipal
level are taking an interest in implementing measures to protect our planet but
acting independently and hastily ahead of the federal and provincial
governments and putting in place new rules can sometimes have unintended and
negative consequences.
Municipalities that come up with their own requirements are
undermining an established process that works. Fragmented building requirements
implemented at the municipal level often create duplication of efforts with
higher-tier governments and can contribute to policy confusion, ultimately
hampering the ability of the construction industry to deliver a much-needed
housing supply.
This municipal overreach, whereby municipalities mandate
their own unique technical requirements as they see fit, might seem like a good
idea at first, but municipal standards must be in harmony with those
established by the higher-tier levels of government. Otherwise, they will
merely cause chaos and uncertainty.
Harmonization of construction codes by the federal and
provincial government might seem to move too slowly for some municipal
governments but there is a methodical process in place for a number of reasons.
The development of building codes involves countless subject
matter experts, comprehensive research and development initiatives, monitoring
of case studies, material and product evaluations as well as demonstration
projects.
It is a costly and complex process, which is why code
development is typically left to provincial and federal governments, with
support from the National Research Council Canada which co-ordinates the
process and validates code change proposals.
This is the primary reason RESCON supports the provincial
and national building code development process over municipal programs. The
built-in checks and balances vet code change proposals and institute
accountability to the process before any changes are made.
In 2020, Ontario signed the Reconciliation Agreement on
Construction Codes, whereby Ontario committed to harmonizing the Ontario
Building Code with the National Construction Codes. The aim of the agreement is
to harmonize codes to help reduce barriers related to labor mobility, product
manufacturing, and building design, all while ensuring a path forward for
net-zero buildings across Canada.
Upsetting the apple cart by having individual municipalities
come up with their own requirements does not advance the cause.
For one, many municipal green standards have proven to be
futile in lowering greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and improving energy
efficiency in new homes and buildings.
For example, the Toronto Green Standard (TGS) was
implemented in 2010, and the more recent TransformTO climate action strategy in
2017. These were put in place independently and more hastily ahead of
higher-tier government actions. However, more recently a growing amount of data
has emerged that showed these approaches have not lowered GHG emissions and
improved energy efficiency in new buildings.
Unfortunately, homeowners ultimately paid the price, as the
municipal green requirements increased the cost and complexity of construction.
Yet, they delivered lackluster performance in return.
Now, Toronto council has fast-tracked the city to be
net-zero by 2040 instead of 2050. This will accelerate TGS implementation
timelines even more, increase costs for the construction industry and send us
down a path without consideration as to how to handle electrification.
Meanwhile, Canada and Ontario are still working towards the 2050 goal, which
will only cause confusion for the industry and buyers of new homes.
Everybody must be working off the same rules when it comes
to standards. RESCON strongly believes municipal governments should fall in
line with federal and provincial codes. It should not be the other way around.
