The BC Energy Step Code was introduced by the province of British Columbia in April 2017 and was developed in collaboration with stakeholders as part of the Province's efforts to improve the energy efficiency and environmental sustainability of buildings to meet the province's climate action goals – providing a pathway to reach a net-zero energy ready target by 2032.
Changes effective May 1, 2023
The Province informed local governments that it has amended the Building Act and BC Building Code to implement Step 3 of the performance-based BC Energy Step Code, requiring most new construction in BC to be 20% more energy efficient than 2018 Building Code. This will not affect current building permits or in-progress applications but will affect any building permit applications made on or after May 1st, 2023 across the province.
To prepare the local building industry for the anticipated change, the Township of Spallumcheen adopted Step 1 of the BC Energy Step Code in 2022. This was a voluntary adoption at the time to ease the transition to Step 3 (20%) of the BC Energy Step Code. Since Step 1 has been adopted, there is no change to the process involved with building a new dwelling and new homes will continue to require the involvement of a Certified Energy Advisor.
This increase in Energy Step Code requirements will see a move of small residential homes (Part 9) to Step 3 and more complex buildings (Part 3) required to meet Step 2. The future changes to the efficiency of new buildings is expected to be the implementation of Step 4 (40%) in 2027 and Step 5 (80%) in 2032.
More information can be found in the following locations: