Compliance to BCA

Under the Build­ing Code Act (BCA), each munic­i­pal­i­ty is respon­si­ble for the enforce­ment of the Act in its munic­i­pal­i­ty. The Act pro­vides that the Coun­cil of each munic­i­pal­i­ty shall appoint a chief build­ing offi­cial and such inspec­tors as are nec­es­sary for the enforce­ment of the Act in the areas in which the munic­i­pal­i­ty has juris­dic­tion. The stan­dards for con­struc­tion are con­tained in a reg­u­la­tion passed pur­suant to the BCA, com­mon­ly known as the Build­ing Code. The Build­ing Code sets out cri­te­ria gov­ern­ing design and con­struc­tion meth­ods and mate­ri­als to be used in the con­struc­tion of all build­ings falling with­in the Act. Pur­suant to the BCA, no per­son shall con­struct or demol­ish a build­ing unless a per­mit has been issued there­fore by the chief build­ing offi­cial; fur­ther, the chief build­ing offi­cial is required to issue the per­mit unless the pro­posed build­ing, con­struc­tion, or demo­li­tion will con­tra­vene the BCA or the Build­ing Code or any oth­er applic­a­ble law.

The BCA estab­lish­es the reg­u­la­to­ry struc­ture and includes a num­ber of pro­vi­sions relat­ing to inspec­tion mat­ters, includ­ing: the respon­si­bil­i­ty to enforce the Act; the require­ment of an inspec­tion pri­or to occu­pan­cy of a build­ing or part there­of; an inspec­tors legal right to enter a build­ing or prop­er­ty at any rea­son­able time with­out a war­rant where a build­ing per­mit appli­ca­tion has been made; the pow­er of an inspec­tor to issue orders to com­ply and to issue orders pro­hibit­ing the cov­er­ing or enclos­ing of any part of a build­ing until such time as an inspec­tor has had an oppor­tu­ni­ty to inspect. Breach­es of the BCA con­sti­tute an offence, and per­sons breach­ing the Act are liable to be pros­e­cut­ed under the Provin­cial Offences Act.