B.C. municipality pushes for European-style elevators to cut costs, boost accessibility

CBC

5 hours ago

A Vancouver Island municipality is pushing the province to make changes to its elevator rules in a bid to make homes more accessible and affordable.
The District of Saanich recently voted unanimously to send a resolution to the Union of B.C. Municipalities (UBCM), calling on the province to "legalize" smaller and less expensive European-style elevators in low- and mid-rise buildings in which an elevator would otherwise not be installed.
Coun. Teale Phelps Bondaroff, who brought the motion forward, says the idea stemmed from a chance conversation over coffee.
"I was talking to some residents…and one of them just casually brought up European elevator standards," he said.
"It's one of those...conversations at a coffee shop, leading to potentially a policy that might make housing a little more affordable and a little more accessible."
A 2024 report from the Center for Building in North America, which Phelps Bondaroff's motion cites, found elevator prices in Canada and the U.S. are three times higher than in comparable buildings in Europe.
According to the report, Canada has just four elevators per 1,000 people, compared to 15 in South Korea and more than 20 in countries like Spain and Greece.
Currently, B.C. abides by the Canadian Standards Association's B44 guide which requires large elevator cabins that can accommodate a stretcher. In practice, they are costly, says Phelps Bondaroff, and that means most builders avoid including elevators in walk-up townhouses or small apartment buildings.
According to the motion, the 2024 B.C. Building Code requires elevators in all residential buildings, although large one- and two-storey buildings and small buildings with three storeys or fewer are exempt.
"In [these] low- and mid-rise buildings, it isn't a choice between oversized, overbuilt American elevators versus smaller, cost-effective ones," Phelps Bondaroff said. "It's a choice between European elevators or no elevator at all."
"If we want seniors, parents with strollers, and people with accessibility needs to access homes in walk-ups and smaller apartments, we need more options."
WATCH | How smaller elevators could increase accessibility:
Saanich calls for building code changes in B.C. to allow smaller, cheaper elevators
1 day ago
Duration 2:27
A B.C. municipality is calling for changes to the province's building code to allow smaller and more affordable elevators. The District of Saanich says it's a key step toward improving accessibility for those dealing with mobility challenges. As Sohrab Sandhu reports, the move is being welcomed by industry experts and accessibility advocates.
The lack of affordable elevator options has real-world consequences for people with mobility challenges, says accessibility advocate Susan Bains.
"When I used to live in a condo with 24 units, there was only one elevator," Bains said. "If it was down for maintenance, you'd be waiting…you're really just relying on one elevator."
Bains hopes that allowing more compact and affordable elevators will encourage developers to include them even in buildings where they aren't currently required by code.
CBC News has reported on the impacts of broken elevators across Canada over the past decade, and heard stories from seniors and people with disabilities who've been largely stuck in their apartments for weeks or months while their building's sole elevator was down.
Some told of how they had to wait for others to carry them up the stairs or take 10-minute breaks between each flight. One advocate described that some residents were left to crawl down the stairs of their multi-storey building, while staff at a care home feared getting burned while hauling hot food upstairs to residents.
Cheaper maintenance
Sam Holland, a director of the housing advocacy group Homes for Living, said maintaining European-style elevators costs less.
"European elevators aren't just cheaper to install, they are also more affordable to maintain over time," he said in a statement.
"That's because they use globally standardized parts that are easier to source and service, unlike the expensive and often delayed components we rely on in North America."
Mark Bernhardt, former president of the Canadian Home Builders Association of B.C., supports the idea of smaller elevators. He says in one recent low-rise rental project, installing a single elevator cost $135,000.
"That's one of the biggest line items in the whole building," he said. "So if there is anything we can do to shave that down, that is something that home builders absolutely support."
Housing Minister Ravi Kahlon says the province is open to the idea.
"We in B.C. have been open…when it comes to changes to building code…to allow for more affordability as well as more convenience," he said.
"[This proposal] may actually address cost pressures that we are seeing…and [it] may also help us diversify away from the U.S., which I think is needed given the challenges we have now," he said, referring to President Donald Trump's trade war.
If adopted at the UBCM convention, the resolution would become part of the organization's formal lobbying effort to the province.
Kahlon says the province would then consider public consultation on the matter and could bring the discussion to a national level.
"But when something makes sense in B.C, we're also prepared to go forward alone," he said.