Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Right now across every jurisdiction in Canada a process is occurring where jurisdictions have gotten advance copies of National Building Code 2020, and many are reviewing and deciding whether they want to implement it, whether they want to make any exemptions. As I stated in my statement, many have already taken parts of it, such as the sections on mass timber, and implemented them.
And my question for the Minister of MACA is whether we are doing any of this work, whether this is work that the GNWT does at all, or simply do we just go to the Fire Prevention Act regulations and change 2015 to 2020 when that comes into force? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Yellowknife North. Minister responsible for Municipal and Community Affairs.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NWT is currently using the 2015 National Building Standards or the National Building Code. The code permits construction of mass timber buildings up to six stories. The 2020 edition that the Member's talking about was released in March of 2022, and the fire marshal's office has up to two years, or until 2024, to adopt it. But I'm happy here to say it to this here in the House and for the people out there that the fire marshal's office will be adopting it in the first quarter of the 2023 fiscal year. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. That's news to me. I'm glad to hear that we will be adopting NBC 2020.
I guess my understanding though, is we don't actually adopt it wholesale; we just adopt the small section of it that applies to fire prevention and then the fire marshal approves that. The rest of it is kind of left up to municipalities.
Also in one of the exemptions that a number of jurisdictions are exploring is whether buildings of four to six stories need two stairwells. I know this is a highly technical exemption but a number of jurisdictions have said that if you get rid of the second stairwell requirement, you see the nature of cities change, you see more buildings built in a different style. I'm just wondering if this is something at all that we have considered? Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the NBC 2015 requires at least two exits, and there must be arranged so that they are clear, visible, identifiable, and accessible.
For public safety reasons, we cannot facilitate a single means of exit, the current adoption or adopted code, as well as the 2020 code, requires two exits to ensure that at least one exit is available during emergency evacuation if one is blocked due to fire or smoke. I do not want to be the Minister that has only one exit and we have a fatality going out there. So we are going to follow the code as it is and follow the recommendations as it will have to. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Yes, I guess this gets to kind of the heart of implementing building codes, as I can assure the Minister there are buildings all across this territory with one exit, and there are buildings all around this territory that don't meet the code because they were built a long time ago. And, you know, it's whether how we enforce those standards.
One of the specific standards beyond the National Building Code I'd like is the Canadian Safety Association Standard B561, also very technical. But the Human Rights Commission has said that in order to prevent a building from a discrimination case for not being accessible, this is the standard that we should adopt. The territory should be designing buildings to be accessible for disability standards.
I'm wondering if the department is looking into any work to be done so we could adopt that accessibility standard. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, the standard's already in place in the NWT as referenced in the current adopted edition of the National Building Code 2015. Many additional changes are incorporated in the 2020 edition of the NBC to further improve the accessibility design. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. Final supplementary. Oral questions. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
