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Updates to the B.C. Building Code that will reduce the impact of buildings on the environment are now available online for public input, Minister responsible for Housing Rich Coleman has announced.

The Province committed to developing a unified green building code in the 2007 throne speech. Greening the B.C Building Code will fulfil this commitment by improving the energy and water efficiency of homes and other buildings, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. It will also result in lower energy bills for British Columbians.

Changes proposed in the first stage of greening the B.C. Building Code focus on improving sustainability through increased energy and water efficiency. The proposals would set the following requirements for new construction or additions to existing buildings, effective in spring 2008:

• Houses, low-rise residential buildings and small commercial and industrial buildings would be required to install increased insulation or, in the case of housing, meet an increased EnerGuide rating.
• High rise residential buildings and larger commercial buildings must meet the American Society of Heating, Refrigeration and Air-Conditioning Engineers 90.1(2004) standard. ASHRAE is an internationally recognized standard for energy efficiency in buildings.
• Use of ultra low-flow toilets and other water saving plumbing fixtures in all new buildings and additions to existing buildings.

The campaign coincides with the legislative committee on finance and government services completing public hearings across the province held between September 17 and October 12. The committee will file a report by November 15.

"When you consider that the projected surplus for the province is $1.6 billion, $18 million [the amount of the increase being lobbied for] is 1.12 percent of that. That's not very much," Andrew Wilhelm-Boyles , executive director of the alliance, told the Straight .

Last year, a similar campaign was launched prior to the 2007 provincial budget. Despite a unanimous recommendation by the cross-party committee that the government increase arts council funding, the government chose not to do so.

"If there is a will on the part of the minister of the arts, if there is a will on the part of the minister of finance, the recommendations of this committee certainly strengthen their hand," insisted Wilhelm-Boyles, who noted that arts funding in B.C. is among the lowest in the country. Saskatchewan, with a population of less than one million, recently doubled its arts-board funding from $4.5 million to $9 million, which represents more than $9 per capita in arts funding. By contrast, B.C.'s arts-council funding amounts to just over $3 per capita, putting it ahead of only Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Newfoundland.

The last time funding for the B.C. Arts Council was increased was in the 2005-06 budget, when it was raised by $3 million, to $14 million.