Three years ago, the Ontario Building Code required that any developer taking on a mid-rise wood-frame building had to construct stairwells out of non-combustible material.

That was expensive. It made construction challenging, and, according to the Canadian Wood Council, resulted in a lower adoption of wood-frame building.

Since that requirement was removed in 2023, allowing full buildings to be constructed with wood, interest in mid-rise wood-frame building has increased considerably, especially for residential builds, said Hailey Quiquero, senior manager with the Ontario WoodWorks program, an initiative of the Canadian Wood Council.

“Now, in our market, we’re sitting at around 50 per cent of five- and six-storey buildings being built out of wood construction, so a great jump,” Quiquero said during a June 4 online webinar hosted by Ontario WoodWorks.

“We've still got a long way to go. In British Columbia, I think it's greater than 80 per cent of this market is built out of wood, so lots of room and opportunity to keep educating our market here about this really cost-effective method of building housing, especially.”