February 6th 2026

Intel

2025 National Building Code of Canada Issued

To very little fanfare, the Canadian Board for Harmonized Construction Codes issued the new 2025 National Building Code of Canada in December, just before the end of 2025.

CBHCC has provided this detailed summary. My commentary on some of the major highlights are as follows:

Farm Buildings

The 2020 National Building Code implemented a new major occupancy G for Farm Buildings with the specific requirements covered under Part 2 which had been previously "Reserved". Most provinces chose not to implement these new changes in their adoption of the 2020 National Building Code due to opposition from farmers that were concerned with increased construction costs.

Additional requirements have now been included for large farm buildings. I guess we'll see if any provinces decide to move ahead with adoption.

Until the new Part 2 is adopted in BC, the 30+ year old 1995 National Farm Code continues to be the standard here, particularly the clarification that the 1995 National Building Code requirements for things like accessibility are to be met in farm buildings.

EMTC

An increase in allowable height to 12 storeys has been added for Encapsulated Mass Timber Construction buildings. Many of the changed EMTC provisions have already been adopted by some provinces, including BC.

Limiting Distances

Some errors in the spatial tables have been fixed - oh, I mean updated - based on the original equations determined by the original research. The equation has now been included in the notes along with clarification that indeed, one can use linear interpolation when determining minimum requirements from the tables.

Adaptable and Visitable Dwelling Unit Requirements

Yes, now in addition to adaptable dwelling unit requirements, requirements to accommodate visitors that have accessibility needs have been added for dwelling units. While I appreciate the implementation, I suspect that this will receive a lot of opposition.

Alteration of Existing Buildings

This new Part 10 provides only provisions related to energy with most buildings being directed to Part 13 of the NECB. More detailed allowances are given for Part 9 buildings.

Intriguing

Hotel on the Moon

You can indeed reserve your spot at the proposed Lunar Hotel!

What kind of building code do you think would apply to such a building? Of course at this time there are no official colonies from anyone on good ol' terra firma, which would start the establishment of administrative requirements. But, are our earthly biased building codes appropriate for Lunar Lodgings? Does a 45 m travel distance in the floor area covered in moon dust make sense?

While I jest, this is an interesting conundrum. Both the dynamics of fire and the movement of people are likely different in a low oxygen, low gravity environment. What about smoke? It probably isn't reasonable to open the windows or ventilate the building as we are accustomed to doing. Moon operations, like space travel in general I would say, doesn't really afford the option to open the exterior door and step outside for exiting, and movement to an adjacent structure that can be separated from the adjacent burning structure, with confidence, is likely the only viable solution.

With space travel and large scale movement of people off the mother earth seemingly a potential for many of us to see in our lifetime, addressing the construction requirements for colonies on the moon, or if Elon has his way, Mars, will need some serious attention.

Unsolicited Opinion

Townhouses

The rise of the stacked townhouse building topography is getting underway to increase density on formerly single family housing lots in our cities and towns in BC. We are more and more often getting involved on these projects to help designers and Architects meet the sometimes challenging increased building design requirements.

Between my regular work and my involvement with the Saanich Advisory Design Panel, I've been seeing a lot more townhouse designs of late. This article in deezen provides some interesting ideas for interior design in this townhouse located in Belgium, which I haven't seen, though maybe I need to read more Dwell Magazines!

The couple of interesting items I noted were:

The incorporation of the stair guard into the kitchen counter which also extends to a peninsula projection. I find this a great use of space, though maybe not a great idea with a cat that likes to knock things off the counter.
The extensive use of wood on the ceilings - this is something I often saw in Europe, and have rarely seen here. The building code allows this in Part 9 and Part 3 buildings allowed to be of combustible construction!
Flat sheet steel as finish on the fireplace - an interesting touch. I am a little undecided on the visible joints in the sheets.

From a code perspective, the lack of handrails on the stairs, is a bit concerning, and hopefully no visitors will miss a step and take a tumble! No building official will let this slide in Canada though, so I'll always have a handrail to reach for when I misstep in the dark.

There are a couple challenges that we are seeing regularly in stacked townhouse designs that both can be dealt with via Alternative Solutions, in cases where the builder is willing to spend on those to have an improved design. The first is the challenge with getting light into the lower unit while meeting exiting requirements for the upper unit which must have an exterior door no higher than 1.5m above adjacent ground. The second is that when the upper units share an exit stair, the building code then requires each dwelling to have an second exit which is a challenge to fit into the design. We can help with these challenges, so reach out if you'd like to hear about your options.

What are your thoughts on townhouse design in Canada versus the old world? Or the challenges with stacked townhouse design? I think there are lots of great designs out there with interesting ideas and options to consider. Shoot me an email at bfraser@celerity.ca.

About

January has turned into just a blurred memory this year from so any things a foot between moving our Vancouver office, new work, preparing to move our Victoria office, oh, the rain..., COVID coming to visit, and so forth. The ski hills have unfortunately not been a distraction! Though, I was lucky to get out with my two older kids just after new years for an evening at Mount Washington. Little did we know that, that trip is likely to be the last this season! At least my heating bill is low this year.

I hope everyone's year has started well. We are excited here for the coming year!

All the best!