It’s a very busy and exciting time here at Passive House Canada. We’re developing and delivering new online courses, holding Passive House Institute exams for Designer-Consultant designation, planning our December Passive House Canada Summit and continuing to advocate on behalf of the Passive House Institute building standard. You won’t hear a bit of complaint from me – the increasing activity demonstrates interest in Passive House Canada and the building standard we represent. We can’t do it without your support and advocacy.
Passive House Canada is partnering with Efficiency Canada to advocate for better building codes. This is an important group we have worked with in past on government submissions and research. In the coming months we will be promoting policies and calling on government decision makers to improve the national building code. Watch for more information.
Case in point – Efficiency Canada has just released its paper, “Strengthening Canada’s Building Code Process to Achieve Net-Zero Emissions,” outlining the opportunities and challenges that exist with our current national building code. You’ve probably heard Passive House Canada folks raise these important issues and we’re happy to have Efficiency Canada put its weight behind our shared concerns. Our founding CEO, Rob Bernhardt, delves into the problems with our current national building code development process and calls on government to lead and drive internal change. You can read Rob’s Policy Series #4 here and #5 here. Rob has written a number of papers for us that you can read on our website here. All are good food for thought and provide detailed background information we advocates need.
And speaking of the national building code, we recently wrote the Minister of Natural Resources, Seamus O’Regan, about the move earlier this year by the standing committee on energy efficiency (SC-EE) to exclude large commercial, institutional and multi-residential buildings from the need for whole building airtightness testing. We wrote to protest this change and to ask that his Department reverse this decision in the name of maintaining the high-performance building standard pathway Canada is on. As you well know, without air tightness testing there is no assurance that a building is meeting its high-performance design parameters. We have offered to walk the Minister through how we address concerns raised by industry and look forward to his Department’s response.
I am excited for the release of an important academic paper next week that will have global significance for policy makers, government decision makers and the building sector as a whole. I look forward to sharing this news with you. Stay tuned!
Our Building Conversations online talk show continues to draw viewers from across Canada with interesting guests talking on a wide array of subjects. Our next show is November 18, noon ET or 9am PT. We’re talking with Mark Ashby, Principal and Founder of Fold Architecture. Mark will talk about the need for a “whole of building” approach needed for successful Passive House buildings. Details to register here.
We here at Passive House Canada wish you and your loved ones all the best in these trying times. Stay safe.
Chris
