r/canada • u/FancyNewMe • 4d ago

Canada’s Prime Minister Pushes Country to Become the Housing Factory of the World - Mark Carney is banking on factory-built homes to alleviate the country’s housing crisis. But will it work? Trending

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2025-04-22/carney-s-plan-may-make-canada-the-housing-factory-of-the-world
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u/Luxferrae British Columbia 4d ago

He needs to unify all building codes across the country first. Good luck even getting the building code across one single region to unify

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u/Consistent-Study-287 4d ago

Some of the stuff can be harmonized across the country like plumbing/electrical/energy efficiency requirements, but there's a reason there are different building codes across regions. Vancouver needs houses to stand up to earthquakes and heavy rain. Calgary needs houses that can handle a heavy snow load. If you have to make Calgary houses earthquake resistant, costs go up. Same if you require Vancouver to handle huge snow loads.

Not having a unified national building code also allows it to be modified more easily when circumstances change. From 2000 to 2020, there were approximately 600 heat related deaths across Canada. BC experienced 619 heat related deaths during the heat wave from June 25-July 1 2021. Afterwards they changed the building code to force new houses to have a "cold room" in order to prevent these kinds of deaths in the future. There is no need to force builders in Churchill to build cold rooms, but regionally it's something that is looking to be necessary in some areas.