Harmonizing OBC SB-12 with NBC Tier 3 Energy Efficiency Standards: A RESCON Proposal
In 2024, the Ontario government rejected harmonizing the Ontario Building Code (OBC) energy efficiency requirements with those of the model National Building Code (NBC), Section 9.36, Energy Efficiency. This was primarily due to the lack of prescriptive measures aligned with the requirements currently found in Ontario’s Supplementary Standard SB-12.
The fact is that SB-12 is well understood by the housing industry and has been used successfully for more than a decade. Moving away from it would create significant challenges for the home-building industry, requiring considerable effort to build the capacity needed to understand and implement NBC 9.36. Potential cost increases and workforce impacts could, in turn, affect housing supply.
However, these concerns remained largely hypothetical, as little research had been done to help builders understand the actual impact that Tier 3 requirements could have. Further, no impact analysis was completed on Tier 3 that included an assessment of capital cost, operating costs to homebuyers, or carbon emissions. At the time, no prescriptive requirements were available that could indicate whether construction practices or equipment referred to in the requirements were widely available with proven performance.
Rather than wait, builders decided to take matters into their own hands. RESCON, the leading association representing residential builders in Ontario, participated in an NRCan Code Acceleration Fund project. On behalf of RESCON, buildABILITY researched and developed prescriptive compliance packages that Ontario could adopt to meet the requirements of NBC Tier 3.
The work included a full impact analysis informed by RESCON builders. Each energy measure was carefully scrutinized and assembled into prescriptive packages that were cost effective.
Join us on November 11, 2026, to hear Michael Lio, P.Eng. and President of buildABILITY, present these proposed packages and the important findings and what they could mean for Ontario’s home-building industry.