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The National Building Code publications are "model" codes, meaning that they serve as a base guideline for regions across the country. Every 5 years when the NBC publishes a new version, provinces and territories take that model code, adopting or modifying it to create the building code that becomes law.

Since 2016, all regions of Canada have been working toward harmonization of their building codes, using the National Building Code as the base. The table below describes in general how the provinces and territories are currently aligned with the National Building Code or if they've adapted their own version:

*What are TIERS?

The latest National Energy Code for Buildings and National Building Code have mandated a graduated system of energy efficiency steps or "tiers", from 1 to 5 with Tier 1 being the 2020 prescriptive code and Tier 5 being approximately equivalent to Passive House performance.