Building codes may change more frequently

The Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes is seriously considering changing to a three year cycle for publishing a new National Building Code. Currently, the code cycle is five years.
After a joint task force responsible for reviewing the code cycle proposed a shorter cycle to the Canadian Commission in January, the commission has asked the task force to develop materials for introducing the proposal to the provinces and industry stakeholders to get their comments.
The task force is proposing moving to a shorter cycle after the 2010 national code has been issued. There would also be an annual public review of any proposed changes.
Building codes in Canada are already undergoing major changes, with the introduction of objective based National Building Code of Canada in 2005. John Archer, secretary of the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes, which is part of the National Research Council of Canada, says that so far only two provinces have adopted the objective-based codes, but by the end of this year all the provinces should have them in place.
There are plans to review how well objective-based codes are working once they have begun to be more widely adopted and used.