Westshore building codes are getting more energy efficient

Around half of BC’s municipalities have passed bylaws to implement the BC Energy Step Code, requiring various levels of energy efficiency before they’re required province-wide, including nine on the South Island.

The step code was launched in 2017 with the goal of reaching net zero emissions buildings by 2032. It isn’t a detailed, prescriptive plan, but rather a flexible performance-based target that municipalities can implement on their own schedule. 

Each “step” reaches a higher level of energy efficiency on the way to zero, using the 2017 BC building code as a baseline. The plan doesn’t say: start with triple-pane windows, then install heat pumps, then start building air-tight building envelopes. It just says: be 20% better, and then 50% better, and then reach net zero. 

Builders and municipalities get to decide how to be better, and when. Or, they can go at the provincial pace.

Highlands, for example, just jumped all the way to a net-zero requirement for detached homes starting in January, with the major caveat that buildings with a low-carbon energy system—such as a heat pump—only have to be 20% more energy efficient than the current building code. 

Colwood’s new council is not far behind; as of next summer all single-family homes (including duplexes and townhomes) and multi-family buildings will have to be net zero, or, if they use a low carbon energy system, they only have to meet step three (a 20% improvement). Commercial buildings have to be 50% more efficient, but they’re allowed to drop to 20% and 40% if they use a low carbon energy system.

These bylaws are intended to incentivize builders to use low-carbon energy systems, which the municipalities see as an impactful way to immediately reduce carbon emissions. 

The province is expected to update its building code to match a 20% improvement in energy efficiency for 2023, equivalent to step three. By 2027, a 40% improvement will be required, and by 2032 net zero will be mandated for all buildings.

Sooke and View Royal have both passed step code bylaws that are slightly ahead of the provincial schedule, but offer no incentives or penalties for certain types of energy systems. 

The hardest part of the new step code, according to a Sooke building department staffer, has been finding energy advisors. That’s a new certification created for the step code; the advisors are qualified to determine which step a building plan will fall into.

Critics say BC should have prescribed the energy improvements across the board  

Opponents to the plan say the higher levels of energy efficiency beyond low-hanging fruit such as triple-pane windows and heat pumps are even more expensive, and will exacerbate the affordability crisis. 

The increased expense worried Colwood Mayor Doug Kobayashi, who said in the Nov. 28 council meeting, “I'm torn between being bold and visionary, being a climate leader and being practical from an affordability point of view, because we're certainly getting hammered on that.” 

Victoria Residential Builders’ Association’s executive director Casey Edge says BC should be following the national building code plan, a model being developed for provinces and territories to implement for net-zero buildings in 2030. 

Edge doesn’t dispute that net zero is a good goal, but he thinks BC should have created a uniform building code to increase energy efficiency requirements at regular intervals across the province. 

“Start at step one, and move every few years. After you've gone through that process, you'll get to your stated goal of net zero in 2032,” he said. 

The end result would be the same, but getting there would be a lot less complicated. He speculates they went for the flexible method for two reasons: to let municipalities call themselves climate leaders, and to share the responsibility for the building code to avoid a repeat of the financial and legal burden caused by the leaky condo fiasco in the 1990s. 

One factor among many that led to the leaky condo crisis in BC was a building code requirement for greater weather sealing of exterior walls. Inadvertently, that meant some buildings also kept moisture in, which contributed to mold and rot.

Edge argues there isn’t sufficient research being done on new technologies and materials being used to reach lower emissions targets, which could have unintended negative consequences. 

Victoria, Saanich, Central and North Saanich, and Oak Bay have also implemented their own step code bylaws.