Which CAN/ULC Edition Has Your AHJ Adopted? A Province-by-Province Lookup

Last updated: August 2026

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The short version

The newest published edition is almost never the one that applies. Which edition governs depends on your province and on which of the two codes catches your work — the building code or the fire code. Those two are adopted separately, and in three of the four jurisdictions whose referenced-documents tables we have actually read, they do not name the same set of standards.

Currently published, for reference only:

None of the 2024 or 2026 editions appears in any table on this page.

This page is the province-by-province lookup: which code is in force where, and which CAN/ULC edition it designates. For why published and adopted editions diverge — the naming changes, the clause renumbering, the buying advice — see Which edition of CAN/ULC applies to your job. For which standard governs the task in front of you — S524, S536, S537 or S1001 — see Which fire alarm standard applies. This page does not repeat either explanation.

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The master matrix

Read the two negative markers differently. Not referenced anywhere against Quebec is a checked result: we looked, and the strings are not there. Not verified against British Columbia and against the NFC 2020 column is an admission: we did not open that table, and we are not going to infer it from a neighbouring jurisdiction.

Why all six new rows are blank on CAN/ULC. One reason, and it is not laziness: the free federal NBC 2020 and NFC 2020 PDFs on publications.gc.ca are encrypted, and their referenced-documents tables could not be read out of them. Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island all adopt the national model codes — but a province can amend Table 1.3.1.2 when it adopts, and this page does not infer a province's table from the model text. The adopting instrument and the in-force date are verified. The editions are not.

Two of the six carry a wrinkle worth knowing. Newfoundland and Labrador is the only jurisdiction here still on the 2015 codes, and its adopting regulation moves on its own: NLR 45/12, s. 3(1.1) adopts "further editions and amendments to those codes, are adopted 6 months following the date of their publication." Prince Edward Island's Codes and Standards Order adopts NFPA 1 (2024), NFPA 101 (2024) and NFC 2020 at the same time and states no order of precedence among them.

Province detail: Fire alarm rules in Manitoba · Saskatchewan · Atlantic Canada.

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Ontario

Building Code

O. Reg. 163/24, in force 1 January 2025 (e-Laws). The regulation is one page. It adopts NBC 2020 as amended by an Ontario Amendment Document dated 17 July 2026 — a document MMAH distributes only on email request, to Ontario.Amendment.Document@ontario.ca.

The only free consolidated text is the 2024 Building Code Compendium (Vol. 1 · Vol. 2), and it is the "January 16, 2025 Update" — four amendment-document versions behind what is in force.

Building Code Table 1.3.1.2 designates:

S536 does not appear in the Building Code at all.

Fire Code

O. Reg. 213/07, free and complete on e-Laws — "Consolidation period: January 1, 2026 - e-Laws currency date (August 12, 2026)", last amendment O. Reg. 303/25.

Fire Code Table 1.2.1.A designates:

Two rules to know:

1.2.1.1.(1) A reference in this Code to a document set out in Table 1.2.1.A. is to the edition designated in the table.

And Division B, Article 1.2.1.3 lets the Chief Fire Official permit an earlier edition where compliance with the designated one is impractical. So even the table is not the last word.

The Ontario wrinkle: the code you must comply with is not fully published for free. The Fire Code is. The Building Code is not — the amendment document in force arrives by email or not at all.

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Alberta

NBC – 2023 Alberta Edition and NFC – 2023 Alberta Edition, both in force 1 May 2024. Both are free from the NRC Publications Archive — NFC(AE) · NBC(AE). Of the jurisdictions here, Alberta is the easiest to actually read.

NBC(AE) Table 1.3.1.2:

NFC(AE) Table 1.3.1.2:

Same split as Ontario: S536 sits in the fire code, not the building code.

The STANDATA wrinkle

Alberta issues interpretations called STANDATA, and it has a rule about what happens to them when a code changes. Verbatim from alberta.ca:

Once a new code comes into effect, all existing STANDATAs are deemed obsolete. However, they are still valid for evaluating code compliance of existing structures…

So a STANDATA you found last year may be obsolete for new work and still live for the existing building in front of you. The current fire alarm one is 23-BCI-011 / 24-ECI-009 / 23-FCI-006, "Existing fire alarm systems," March 2025 (PDF).

More on the province in Fire alarm rules in Alberta.

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British Columbia

BC Building Code 2024, in force 8 March 2024 — "It applies to all projects with building permits applied for after that date." (BC government)

BC Fire Code 2024, effective 8 March 2024, adopted by Ministerial Order No. FSA 2023 1.

We have not verified which CAN/ULC editions the 2024 BC codes reference. We are stating that plainly rather than filling the cell. The only BC-side table we opened was the superseded VBBL 2019, which carried S524-14 and S537-13 — those are not current and must not be read as BC's present position.

There is no consolidated BC Fire Code

In the province's own words:

British Columbia will not be producing a consolidated BCFC document.

To read the BC Fire Code you need two documents side by side: NFC 2020, free from NRC, plus the schedule to Ministerial Order No. FSA 2023 1 (BC fire code page).

And the free HTML viewer at free.bcpublications.ca carries only BCBC 2018, BCFC 2018 and VBBL 2019 — not the editions in force. If you landed there and thought you were reading current code, you were not.

Vancouver is its own jurisdiction

Under the Vancouver Charter, the city writes its own building law:

• 2025 Vancouver Building By-law No. 14343, effective 15 September 2025 (vancouver.ca)
• Vancouver Fire By-law No. 14419, which adopts the BC Fire Code (PDF)

Working in Vancouver means checking the by-law, not the provincial code. More in Fire alarm rules in British Columbia.

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Quebec

Code de construction, chapter I (Bâtiment) — article 1.01 adopts CNB 2020 (NRCC-CONST-56435F). (LégisQuébec, B-1.1, r. 2)

Code de sécurité, chapter VIII (Bâtiment) — article 370 adopts CNPI 2020 (NRCC-CONST-56437F) plus appendice 1. (LégisQuébec, B-1.1, r. 3)

Both chapters came into force 17 April 2025, with an 18-month transition to 17 October 2026 — three years, to 2028, for article 2.1.3.7. Draft regulations published 7 July 2026 would extend that transition to 17 October 2027. Those are draft, not law. Do not plan a schedule around them.

Quebec's Table 1.3.1.2 rows confirmed from the Gazette officielle (D. 437-2025):

The finding worth knowing

"S536" and "S537" appear nowhere in either Quebec regulation. Not in the Code de construction, not in the Code de sécurité. We checked; they are absent.

That has a practical consequence. Code de sécurité article 352 references CAN/ULC-S524 with no year attached — so the edition is not fixed at the point of citation, and you resolve it through articles 1.05 and 343, the edition-resolution rules. If you are used to Ontario, where a table pins every edition, this is a different exercise.

Free full text: the NRC Publications Archive holds chapter I plus CNB 2020 (modifié), in both the 1st (2025) and 2nd (2026) printings.

More on the province in Fire alarm rules in Quebec.

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The federal model codes

These are the documents the provinces amend. On their own they bind nobody, but they are free, and they are the base text for Alberta, BC and Quebec.

NBC 2020 Table 1.3.1.2 designates CAN/ULC-S524:2019 and CAN/ULC-S537:2019.

That is the anchor for the matrix above: the 2019 editions are the national baseline, and no province whose table we have read has moved past them. It is not a substitute for the provincial table — six rows in the matrix are marked unverified precisely because we have not opened theirs.

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How to check your own AHJ

Three steps, in order. Do not skip to step three.

1. Find which code your province has adopted, and when it came into force. This is a regulation or a ministerial order — not the code book. Ontario: O. Reg. 163/24 and O. Reg. 213/07. Alberta: the 2023 Alberta Editions, 1 May 2024. BC: Ministerial Order No. FSA 2023 1. Quebec: B-1.1, r. 2 and B-1.1, r. 3. The in-force date matters because work is generally assessed against the code in force when the permit was taken out.

2. Open that code's referenced-documents table. In the National Building Code format it is Division B, Table 1.3.1.2. In the Ontario Fire Code it is Table 1.2.1.A. Check the building code and the fire code separately — as the matrix shows, they routinely name different sets.

3. Check whether your AHJ has issued an interpretation or bulletin that varies it. Alberta calls these STANDATA. Ontario Fire Code Division B, Article 1.2.1.3 lets the Chief Fire Official permit an earlier edition where the designated one is impractical. Vancouver issues its own bulletins under its own by-laws. A table entry can be overridden by the person who inspects your job.

Then write the edition into your paperwork. "In accordance with CAN/ULC-S537:2019" is a statement. "In accordance with CAN/ULC-S537" is not.

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What this page does not cover

Being straight about the holes:

• The three territories are not listed. Yukon, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. We have not checked their adoptions and will not extrapolate from the ten provinces above.
• The CAN/ULC rows for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island are unverified. We have each one's adopting instrument, and its in-force date where one is published. We do not have the referenced-documents tables — the free federal NBC 2020 and NFC 2020 PDFs on publications.gc.ca are encrypted and the tables could not be read out of them. Those cells stay marked rather than guessed.
• British Columbia's CAN/ULC rows are unverified. BCBC 2024 and BCFC 2024 are in force and we have the dates and the instruments — we do not have the referenced-documents tables. The BC cells stay marked rather than guessed.
• The NFC 2020 S536 edition is unverified. The NBC 2020 rows are confirmed; we did not open the NFC 2020 table.
• Municipal by-laws below the provincial level are largely out of scope, with Vancouver noted because it is a separate jurisdiction by statute rather than a local variation.

Standing caveat on Ontario. Every Ontario Building Code figure on this page comes from the 2024 Building Code Compendium, January 16 2025 Update — the most recent free consolidated text, and four amendment-document versions behind the 17 July 2026 document now in force. Confirm against the current amendment document before citing any of it in a compliance document. The Ontario Fire Code figures do not carry this caveat: e-Laws is complete and current.

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Related

• Which edition of CAN/ULC applies to your job — why published and adopted editions diverge
• Canadian fire alarm codes and standards — what each standard covers
• Which fire alarm standard applies — S524, S536, S537 or S1001, by task
• Fire alarm rules in Alberta
• Fire alarm rules in British Columbia
• Fire alarm rules in Quebec
• Fire alarm rules in Manitoba
• Fire alarm rules in Saskatchewan
• Fire alarm rules in Atlantic Canada
• Who can legally work on fire alarms in Ontario

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Last updated: August 2026. Currency dates relied on: Ontario Fire Code — consolidation period from 1 January 2026, e-Laws currency date 12 August 2026, last amendment O. Reg. 303/25. Ontario Building Code — 2024 Building Code Compendium, January 16 2025 Update; amendment document in force dated 17 July 2026. Alberta — NBC and NFC 2023 Alberta Editions, in force 1 May 2024; STANDATA March 2025. British Columbia — BCBC and BCFC 2024, in force 8 March 2024; Vancouver Building By-law 14343 effective 15 September 2025. Quebec — Code de construction ch. I and Code de sécurité ch. VIII, in force 17 April 2025; table rows per Gazette officielle D. 437-2025. Manitoba — M.R. 78/2023 and M.R. 82/2023, Fire Code in force 1 January 2024. Saskatchewan — Building Code Regulations SR 124/2021, NBC 2020 in force 1 January 2022; Fire Safety Regulations F-15.11 Reg 1. Nova Scotia — N.S. Reg. 198/2024 and the Fire Safety Regulations as amended by N.S. Reg. 60/2025, both effective 1 April 2025. New Brunswick — N.B. Reg. 2021-2 and N.B. Reg. 82-20. Newfoundland and Labrador — NLR 45/12. Prince Edward Island — Building Codes Regulations EC177/20 and the Codes and Standards Order under the Fire Prevention Act.

Fire Alarm Academy is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or acting for the Ontario Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Office of the Fire Marshal, the Government of Alberta, the Province of British Columbia, the City of Vancouver, the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, the National Research Council of Canada, UL Standards & Engagement or the Standards Council of Canada. This page is a reference summary, not legal advice. Confirm every edition against the code text in force for your permit before relying on it.