Canada’s third-largest province has changed its construction code to allow British Columbia developers to build all-timber buildings up to 18 storeys – a 50% increase permitted under the old code. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It is the latest step in a push that has accelerated mass timber across British Columbia and Canada, with the Trudeau government spearheading a push to include the new code changes in the National Building Code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The British Columbia Building and Fire Codes (BC Codes 2024), which came into effect on March 10, 2024<\/a>, is part of a sweep of programs aimed at reducing embodied carbon and decarbonising construction – and comes as\u00a0Canada last year became a signatory of the coalition of countries that will incentivise wooden construction to meet net-zero targets.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Until now, British Columbia only allowed mass timber buildings up to 12 storeys – higher than Australia (8 storeys), the UK (6 storeys) and New Zealand (3 storeys), with reforms bringing the province in line with the US.<\/p>\n\n\n\n