C-287Housing Cost Transparency Act

What it does

• Defines a material housing-related model code proposal as a proposed model code change that could materially affect residential construction costs, housing delivery timelines, approval timelines, compliance complexity or administrative burden.
• Requires the National Research Council to publish a housing cost and impact summary, in both official languages and an accessible format, when such a proposal is first made public for review.
• Requires each summary to explain the proposal, its practical effect, estimated costs and benefits, expected impacts, uncertainties, assumptions, and the names, roles and affiliations of the people who advanced it.
• Requires the Council to publish the relevant governance bodies and committees for each proposal, including member names, positions, roles and affiliations, plus a contact for technical and process questions.
• Requires the Council to keep an accessible public registry with proposal status, key milestones, edition-level impact estimates, and annual summaries of code work and recurring cost-estimation or transparency issues.
• States that a failure to publish, maintain or update these materials does not invalidate any national model code or any related action by provinces, territories or local governments.