Building Codes in Canada to be Updated Due to Climate Change

Canada’s Global News reported on Monday that the country’s national building codes will be changing over the next five years to adapt to climate change. The National Research Council (NRC), which establishes the model codes for building, energy, plumbing and fire, has started working on updating these codes as Canada encounters “more heavy rain, flood, high winds, snow, ice, temperature swings and all-around extreme weather.”

NRC program director, Philip Rizcallah, stated “What we want to do is take the latest research, innovation and products that are in the market and introduce those into the codes so that our buildings will be designed to account for climate change….We can see temperature-change trends, we can see higher wind-load trends, we can see evidence of wildfires for example in Fort Mac or Kelowna … in Calgary where we’ve had these flood situations where they’ve knocked out entire cities … the codes need to start adapting.”