ICBA Supports Bill C-287 (Housing Cost Transparency Act)

Every regulation added to a home is a cost. Somebody pays it — usually the family that buys or rents the place. Almost never the government that wrote the rule.

That's the whole idea behind Bill C-287, the Housing Cost Transparency Act, and this week ICBA wrote to MP Brad Redekopp to support it. 

The bill is simple. It doesn't block a single code improvement. It just requires the system to show its work before it adds to the price of a home — a plain-language cost and impact summary for every material housing-related code change, with real dollar estimates, the assumptions behind them, and the names of who's pushing the change. Plus a public registry showing the combined cost of each new code edition, instead of burying it one tweak at a time.

That's not a radical ask. In a housing crisis, it's the least we should expect.

Here's why it matters to our members. National code changes get developed with almost no public accounting of what they cost or who pays. Builders and buyers find out after the fact — when the price has already gone up. In B.C., we've watched layer after layer pile on: the Energy Step Code, the Zero Carbon Step Code, and more, each added with little upfront explanation of who pays and how much. As just one example, one of our members has three projects going in Metro Vancouver right now — each built under a different building code.

Bill C-287 respects that provinces, territories and municipalities keep control over adopting and enforcing codes. This is transparency, not a federal power grab.

Canadians need homes, not hidden costs. C-287 makes sure they can see the difference. We'll be watching it closely — and we're ready to help move it forward.