On December 15, 2015, sections 5, 7, 9 and 43 of the British Columbia Building Act came into force (see BC Reg. 233/2015). Section 5 states that a local building requirement has no effect to the extent that it relates to a Provincially-prescribed building requirement. Section 7 enables local governments to request variances to Provincial building requirements, and section 9 enables the Province to retain a consultant to consider such variance requests. Finally, section 43 is the transition section which states that section 5 does not apply until 2 years after it comes into force.
The Province's website (updated on December 15, 2015) recommends that local governments start reviewing their bylaws for consisitency with Provincial requirements (including the Building Code).
"Section 5 restrictions: This section has a significant effect on local governments and other local authorities. Local governments are advised to review their bylaws and to eliminate any existing building requirements before December 15, 2017 – after that date, those requirements won't have any legal force. Until the two-year transition period ends, local governments will continue to be subject to the concurrent authority provisions of the Community Charter with regards to building requirements.
Section 7 variation requests: The Province recognizes the goal of greater consistency needs to be balanced against a reasonable ability for local governments to meet unique local needs. For this reason, and in limited circumstances, local governments will be able to request what the Building Act calls a variation—meaning, building requirements that differ from or exceed those in provincial building regulations such as the BC Building Code. The Province will establish criteria that variation requests must address."
The scope of section 5 (and, consequently, sections 7, 9 and 43), and the revisions that local governments must make to their bylaws, clearly depends on the regulations to be adopted by the Province.
So what are the Provincial requirements at this time? To date, the only regulation that has been deposited under the Building Act is the UBC Tall Wood Building Regulation, 182/2015. As the name suggests, this regulation prescribes building standards for student residences at Brock Commons at UBC. No other building requirements appear to have been formally set. Accordingly, it remains unclear what, if anything, local governments should do to make their bylaws consistent with the Building Act.
It is likely that the Province will - over the course of the next two years - adopt additional building requirements which local governments will have to take into account. Unfortunately, by bringing section 5 into force before introducing substantive building regulations, the Province effectively reduced the transition period that local governments will have to conduct their review.
You can find our earlier publications on the Building Act here and here.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
