Green Building Standards Could Hinder Construction

The Residential Construction Council of Ontario (RESCON) is concerned that the provincial government is rushing to implement new green building standards related to building construction at the same time it is proposing to build 1.5 million new homes by 2031. The province is in the process of setting up meetings to begin developing a new province-wide approach for interested municipalities and other stakeholders on transitioning to certain green building standards related to building construction into the OBC. This will be achieved through an interim OBC amendment this coming summer, which will most likely come into effect in early 2024. RESCON says the timetable for the changes is patently unrealistic as it means that the building industry and practitioners would have less than 12 months to adopt and understand the changes and put them into practice for 2024 projects. Instead of a hurried approach that will hamper the home building industry, the province and municipalities should move forward in a predictable and measured manner towards sensible and achievable action that will consider the capacity of the industry and cost implications of the changes, yet still enable enough homes to be built to reach the 1.5-million target set by the province.