The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) first offered free electronic access to the National Model Codes in April 2019, through funding from the Government of Canada in support of freely available and harmonized building codes.

In the last 2 years, the NRC has received over 185,000 electronic orders for code publications—that’s more than 10 times the number of electronic orders received in the previous 3 years!

Making the codes freely available in electronic format has given more Canadians access to the National Building Code of Canada (NBC), the National Fire Code of Canada (NFC), the National Plumbing Code of Canada (NPC), and the National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings (NECB), as well as the provincial codes published by the NRC. These codes play a critical role in protecting the health and safety of Canadians when their homes, their places of work and other buildings are built or renovated.

The NRC is pleased to share two recent updates that aim to further improve access to the National Model Codes and related publications for Canadians:
Free user’s guides

To help ensure that the National Model Codes are properly understood and effectively implemented, the NRC is now offering free electronic access to the related user’s guides, including:

• Structural Commentaries (User’s Guide – NBC 2015: Part 4 of Division B)
• Illustrated User’s Guide – NBC 2015: Part 9 of Division B, Housing and Small Buildings
• User’s Guide – National Energy Code of Canada for Buildings 2017

The user’s guides are designed to complement the National Model Codes by providing additional background information, as well as detailed examples and calculations.

Direct access to codes and user’s guides in electronic format

To improve online access to the National Model Codes and the related user’s guides, the NRC has now made the current and previous electronic editions of these publications available for download in PDF format from the NRC Publications Archive.

The NRC is also working towards providing the next electronic editions of the codes and user’s guides in a new accessible HTML format.

The print editions of the code publications will continue to be available for purchase through the NRC Virtual Store.

About

The National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is Canada’s largest federal research and development organization. The NRC partners with Canadian industry to take research impacts from the lab to the marketplace, where people can experience the benefits. This market-driven focus delivers innovation faster, enhances people’s lives and addresses some of the world’s most pressing problems. We are responsive, creative and uniquely placed to partner with Canadian industry, to invest in strategic R&D programming that will address critical issues for our future.

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