The Canadian Home Builders Association says Kamloops is taking the right approach by making Step Code targets voluntary starting in October before making them mandatory in 2021.
Step Code establishes measurable requirements for energy efficiency in new construction. Vice President of the Central Interior chapter of the CHBA Tom Calne says the province hasn’t totally worked out what the approach to modelling is going to be. He says Kimberley is an example of a municipality that had some issues with moving ahead too quickly. “Kimberly, I believe, adopted a step code under the old metrics, and then found out, that the new metrics made it really difficult for their builders to achieve the energy efficiencies that they required. Building permits dropped and it’s created a real problem there.”
Current Past President of the CHBA Matt McCurrach applauds the approach that the city is taking to go with a voluntary path. “There’s also some flaws with that system where the province is realizing that there’s some flaws in the system where it’s costing a lot more, the way they’ve set up the program. Which is costing builders more money, in turn, building affordability is getting pushed further and further away. So, Kamloops has taken a cautious approach to this while the province works out the kinks so to speak.”
McCurrach says there are also concerns when it comes to a lack of inspectors in the Kamloops area which could slow down an industry that’s already having trouble finding workers. One big concern will be for custom homes and making any changes to an approved design. Calne adds “often people will want to change sizes of windows or move them, that’s no longer a fait accompli. You actually would have to go back to your energy adviser, you’d have to remodel the home and basically make sure that any offsets to that additional glazing are taken into account.”
Calne says about two years ago, his association decided to do a cost analysis of what the costs will be to achieve the efficiency targets and the numbers were quite staggering.
