Environmental Science & Engineering - www.esemag.com - March 2005
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Will Ontario’s Bill 124 halt new water and wastewater projects?

By Steve Davey
Under Ontario’s Bill 124, which will take effect July 1, 2005, all Ontario projects for which a building permit is required, will need to have a 'Building Code Identification Number' (BCIN).

This means all electrical, mechanical, plumbing, structural and architectural drawings must be designed by persons having specialized building code knowledge applicable to their specific disciplines. Currently there are ten areas of practice: Housing, Small Buildings, Large Buildings, Complex Buildings, Plumbing for Housing, Plumbing for All Buildings, HVAC for Housing, Building Services, Building Structural and Onsite Sewage Treatment Systems.

Designers, including professional engineers and architects, must pass exams testing their knowledge on the Ontario Building Code Act and its administrative regulations. Failure to obtain the required certification will mean denial of a building permit.

In addition to the extra staff certification required under Bill 124, consulting engineers may also have to worry about unavailability of liability insurance. The Consulting Engineers of Ontario (CEO) recently sent out an advisory on how insurance is being affected by the new Bill. The CEO said it had been notified by major professional liability insurance carriers that the Ministry of Municipal Affairs & Housing (MMAH) has failed to address their long-standing concerns with Bill 124.

The CEO advisory stated that neither Encon nor XL Professional will be able to sign insurance certificates as required by MMAH for designer registration under Bill 124. As a result, if MMAH fails to address industry concerns with Bill 124, design firms will not be able to submit building permit applications after July 1, 2005. This is regardless of whether or not they have been certified as “code knowledgeable”.

In a recent letter to John Gerretsen, Ontario’s Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, regarding Bill 124, the CEO outlined several other issues it felt remain unsolved:

This Bill does not address the planning approval process that typically creates greater delays in issuing building permits than code compliance. The commitment to increasing public involvement in planning approvals, will likely add time to the permitting process.
The organization of the Building Code does not realistically reflect the practice of professional engineering. As a result the examinations do not reflect long-established disciplines and areas of practice within the profession (e.g. electrical engineers will be compelled to write examinations that predominantly feature questions on mechanical engineering).
There is an ever-expanding list of “niche” areas of practice where it is unclear to what extent the qualification requirements apply.
If there are legitimate concerns with the effectiveness of the Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) to deal with Building Code (or any other) issues, then the Professional Engineers Act needs to be reviewed and possibly improved, not layered over by additional regulatory regimes that address only one area of practice within the engineering profession.

Notwithstanding the original intent of Bill 124 to reduce red tape, the CEO feels that Bill 124 could effectively shut down the $10 billion construction industry in Ontario – including the building of water plants, schools and hospitals.

The highway to hell is often paved with good intentions. One hopes the government is able to avoid the impending traffic jam that CEO warns Bill 124 could cause.

Information on obtaining Bill 124 qualifications can be found on the following Web sites: www.obc.mah.gov.on.ca (Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing) and www.oboa.on.ca (Ontario Building Officials Association).

Steve Davey is Publisher of Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine.

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