Within Canada's Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change (PCF), federal, provincial, territorial and indigenous governments committed to developing by 2022, "a model code for existing buildings to help guide energy efficiency improvements during renovations." The Canadian Commission on Building and Fire Codes (CCBFC) was tasked with developing this building code for existing buildings alongside action on new buildings, primarily the development of a net-zero energy ready building code.

In 2016, a joint task group of the CCBFC and Provincial and Territorial Policy Advisory Committee on Codes (PTPACC), known as the JTG AEB and supported by technical advisors from the National Research Council, was struck and set about defining the overarching principles, scope and key priorities for a national renovation code. Shaped by a jurisdictional review of national and international standards and codes as well as input from leading jurisdictions the JTG AEB's articulation of the overarching principles for a national retrofit code and recommendations on how code requirements for the alteration to existing buildings would be triggered can be found in the Final Report - Alterations to Existing Buildings. It is expected that the CCBFC Standing Committees will use this report to develop the technical requirements when work on the AEB resumes in late August of 2021.

Released in Spring of 2020, this report highlights that it is the voluntary action of the building owner that will trigger any of the AEB requirements. The report also notes that energy efficiency is the driving force behind the AEB but will not consider carbon performance as it does not fall within the existing five objectives of Canada's national model codes.