- Author
- Bergeron, D. | Desserud, R. J. | Haysom, J. C.
- Title
- Origin and Development of Canada's Objective-Based Codes Concept.
- Coporate
- National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario
- Report
- NRCC-47034
- Book or Conf
- CIB World Building Congress. Proceedings. May 2-7, 2004, Ontario, Canada, 1-10 p., 2004
- Keywords
- codes | fire codes | building codes
- Identifiers
- evolution of the objective-based codes concept; objective-based codes concept and key components
- Abstract
- In the early 1990's, the Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (CCBFC) was faced with a dilemma: One portion of Canada's code using community - primarily designers and product manufacturers - was pushing for the National Code Documents to be more accommodating to innovation and performance-based codes were perceived to be the type of codes that best satisfy this need. Another portion - primarily house builders - was content with the Codes' prescriptive content and feared the loss of this "recipe-based approach" if performance-based codes were adopted. A third portion - primarily enforcement officials - had heard horror stories about the results of adoption of performance-based codes in other countries and feared that the introduction of performance-based codes would create an "anything goes" atmosphere in which they would have no basis for rejecting ill-considered designs and products. The CCBFC and the staff of the Canadian Codes Centre at the National Research Council of Canada sought a solution that would satisfy the aspirations and avoid the concerns of all parties. The solution that emerged will result, in 2005, in the publication of the world's first objective-based codes. While sharing many characteristics with performance-based codes, objective-based codes have certain key differences. Two public consultations have indicated that these differences have indeed addressed code users' concerns and that the concept is broadly supported by all categories of Canadian code users.