Ontario Building Code drops reference to engineers

The Ontario Building Code no longer includes provisions about requiring the need for a professional engineer or architect on a building. Those provisions were previously in Division C, Section 1.2 of the 2006 Building Code, but are not in the 2012 Code which comes into effect on January 1, 2014.

However, the 2012 Code does still require general review of buildings by an architect, engineer or both. And it allocates the responsibility between the two professions.

The Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, which oversees the building code, says the change resulted from a 2007 decision of the Divisional Court of Ontario, which found that the Building Code Act, 1992 “did not provide sufficient authority to allocate responsibility for the design of buildings between members of the professional engineering and architectural professions in the Building Code.”

The Ministry’s press release explains “Architects and professional engineers are both self-regulating professions and are regulated under the Architects Act and the Professional Engineers Act respectively. These Acts define the scope of practice for architects and professional engineers undertaking design of buildings, including requirements for professional design of buildings and allocation of responsibility for professional design between these two professions.”

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