Ontario to allow taller wood frame buildings with new fire safety requirements

Four years after British Columbia started allowing wood frame buildings of up to six storeys in height, the Ontario government will start doing the same thing next year.

The Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing recently announced that, starting Jan. 1, 2015, builders will be allowed to construct wood frame buildings of up to six storeys in height in the province.

The Ontario Building Code currently only allows wood frame buildings of four or fewer storeys. Ontario Regulation 191/14, filed Sept. 23, will amend the code to increase the limit, for certain buildings, to six storeys.

The code will also have “new safety requirements for wood frame buildings that include building stairwells with non-combustible materials and roofs that are combustion resistant,” the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing noted in a press release.

In 2009, B.C. started allowing six-storey wood frame buildings. Published reports indicate that in May 2011, the first six-storey all-wood building approved in B.C. was consumed by fire while under construction.

In Ontario, a private member’s bill proposing the increased height limit was tabled, in February 2013, by Vic Fedeli, Progressive Conservative Member of Provincial Parliament for Nipissing. That was the second time Fedeli had tried to change the code.  In 2012, Fedeli had tabled the Ontario Forestry Industry Revitalization Act (Height of Wood Frame Buildings), 2012, which was referred to the Standing Committee on Regulations and Private Bills but did not reach third reading.

At the same time, Thunder Bay-Atikokan Liberal MPP Bill Mauro tabled Ontario’s Wood First Act, at Queen’s Park. Both Fedeli’s and Mauro’s bills died on the order paper in October 2012 when then-premier Dalton McGuinty prorogued the legislature after announcing his resignation as Liberal leader.

Then in February, 2013, Fedeli tabled the Ontario Forestry Industry Revitalization Act (Height of Wood Frame Buildings) Act, 2013, which was referred nine months later to the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs. That bill died on the order paper in May, 2014 when Premier Kathleen Wynne called a snap election.

At Queen’s Park last year, then-Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Linda Jeffrey said Fedeli’s bill was premature and “could pose significant safety issues for both residents and our emergency responders.”

At the time, NDP MPP Sarah Campbell said some firefighters had “expressed some concern that the increased height of multi-storey wood frame buildings” would increase fire risk.

“Specifically, their concerns have been raised about the reliability of fire resistance, fire safety during construction, the ability to evacuate, wood shrinkage and the possible breach of firewalls, in addition to some other things that are related to that, including local emergency response time,” Campbell said at the time.

But on Sept. 23, the Municipal Affairs and Housing ministry said the new Building Code changes “give builders a safe option that can help make building a home more affordable and support more attractive, pedestrian-oriented buildings that enhance streetscapes while continuing to protect the safety of residents and firefighters.”