Building on Standards

1999-10-14

The theme of this year’s World Standards Day celebration is "building on standards," a recognition of the overwhelming importance of standards in construction and the promise they hold for the future of the industry.

It’s a theme Canada can endorse with pride – already, Canada has demonstrated leadership in building standards, and is maintaining its leadership role as we push on to the next millennium. The stories on these pages are a celebration and demonstration of Canada’s excellence in building standards.

Canada’s building standards

Since 1941, Canada has had the National Building Code of Canada – a unified national model building code upon which provincial and municipal codes are based. That code replaced the multiple codes that used to exist for each province, and allowed greater trade and compatibility for the construction industry within Canada.

Standards play an essential role in that code – the 300 standards referenced in the most recent edition account for over half of its technical content, and many more standards are referenced indirectly in the text.

Those standards deal with diverse matters, from architectural design to ventilation, from the structure of the ceiling to the length of nails. They go a long way to ensuring the health and safety of Canadians.

The building code, which is developed by the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes and published by the National Research Council, is revised approximately every five years. It is complemented by the National Fire Code of Canada, the National Plumbing Code of Canada, the National Farm Building Code of Canada and the National Housing Code of Canada.

These codes are developed in a manner very similar to the development of standards – the final product is a result of balanced committees working to achieve consensus. All the codes rely heavily on standards to remain effective and up-to-date.

Building our economy

The construction industry doesn’t just build material things – it also helps build our economic well-being. According to the Canadian Construction Association, the total construction expenditure in Canada in 1998 represented about 12 per cent of Canada’s total GDP – a whopping $99 billion.

Employment in the construction industry grew in 1998, too – some 762,000 Canadians held office or field jobs in construction compared to 747,000 in 1997. Although the industry is big, it’s made up of small businesses – between 90 and 95 per cent of firms in the construction industry have fewer than 20 employees.

Building on success

The harsh conditions some Canadian builders have to deal with have made them come up with interesting and innovative solutions to building problems. Now, Canadians are taking advantage of that innovation to export our knowledge abroad.

Bob Doherty is the principal of Canada North Projects, a company that promotes construction in the North and marketing of Northern construction know-how abroad. He says that Canadian cold weather construction technology – an adaptation of Southern construction standards and methods to meet the more rigorous climactic conditions of the North – is a major selling point for foreign buyers.

"All these challenges are faced in other emerging markets like Russia and Asia," says Mr. Doherty. "Because Canada has developed such high standards in products and building systems, it has become highly desirable around the world."

Canada’s standards are so highly regarded that they are being used as the basis for ongoing projects in Russia – projects that aim to harmonize codes and standards for wood frame construction, basing them on Canadian standards and thereby facilitating entry of Canadian construction products into Russia.

Canada’s innovative work on wood standards has proven very interesting to the Japanese as well. When Japan decided to come up with a two-by-four building code, they didn’t have to start from scratch – they used Canada’s building code as a basis.

They also adopted Canadian dimension lumber and softwood sheathing specifications. That’s led to a healthy trade between Canada and Japan in wood products – since our standards and specifications are comparable, Canadian products can easily be sold in Japan.

It’s not just a technical attraction to Canada, either. The Japanese are famous for their love of Atlantic Canada’s fictional heroine, Anne of Green Gables – or Akage No Anne (red-haired Anne) as she is known in Japan. An East Coast construction firm took advantage of that love to start exporting houses modeled after those in the Anne books.

Rob Oakie, president of Atlantic Canada Home, says the houses have caught on. "We’ve sold over a dozen ‘Anne’ homes since last year in locations all over Japan from Tokyo to Takamatsu," says Mr. Oakie.

Mr. Oakie says his company has experienced very few problems meeting Japanese building standards, in part because the houses are designed by Japanese architects and then approved by an architect from Charlottetown to make sure they meet the criteria of an "Anne" home.

There is a Canadian content minimum, so the architects are obliged to specify Canadian products if they wish to build an "Anne" home.

Building for the future

The Canadian construction industry is showing no signs of slowing down in its inventiveness. We’re leading the way, for example, in having codes that are based on objectives rather than on prescriptive instructions. The codes would lay out what needs to be done, and construction companies would be free to find their own ways of doing it, opening the door to even more innovation.

There would also be guidelines for evaluating whether a given solution meets the requirements.

Building Pride

Canada’s construction industry is one of the great success stories of standards – standards have formed the foundation of the construction codes, have acted as bridges to foreign markets, and have paved the way for progress. It gives Canadians a real cause for celebration when World Standards Day rolls around this October 14th.

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This article first appeared in Volume 26 of CONSENSUS Magazine, 1999.  The information it contains was accurate at the time of publication but has not been updated or revised since, and may not reflect the latest updates on the topic.  If you have specific questions or concerns about the content, please contact the Standards Council of Canada.

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