Elevating data to new heights with
Recommendations for
elevator reform
In 2024, the Center for Building in North America (a thinktank in Brooklyn) published a comprehensive report on how to make elevators more affordable and accessible for the U.S. market. The full report and its summary are available here: https://www.centerforbuilding.org/reports. The report suggests that Canadian and American regulators should consider changing certain attitudes. •
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First, regulators must holistically consider safety and accessibility. There is an inverse relationship between elevator cost and access: whatever increases the cost of elevators comes at the expense of increasing accessibility in buildings. Stricter safety requirements mean those who depend on them will end up being deprived of those measures due to higher costs. Therefore, regulators should take a bigger picture approach when doing a costbenefit analysis of safety and accessibility. Second, regulators must pay more attention to international best practices. While the elevator industry has become more global, North American regulations are becoming less so. Canadian and U.S. regulators should give more credence to practices approved outside of North America, especially when elevators are more affordable and accessible in those markets.
3. Require elevator cabins to accommodate stretchers only for high-rise buildings (where the highest occupied floor or roof is more than 75 ft above the lowest level of fire department vehicle access).
Accessibility 4. Require elevators in multifamily buildings above three or four stories, in conjunction with cost- and size-reducing reforms.
Technical codes and standards 5. Do not allow jurisdictions to deviate from the latest ASME A17.1/CSA B44 elevator safety code. 6. Harmonize the A17.1/B44 code with the global European standard. 7. Roll back elevator hoistway opening protection requirements for most buildings.
To follow are the report’s summarized recommendations, which can be applied to Canadian elevators.
8. Roll back visual communication requirements for most buildings.
Cabin size
9. Allow elevator mechanic licenses to be seamlessly transferred between states.
1. Allow 1.1 m × 1.4 m European wheelchair elevators (without a wheelchair turning radius or accommodation for a stretcher) in small new apartment buildings, at risk of having no elevators at all (or never being built). 2. Allow additional relief on wheelchair turning radii in elevator cabins in larger buildings where developers provide a higher ratio of elevators to apartments.
18 | August 2025
Labour
10. Create legal immigration pathways for construction workers. 11. Develop more technical and vocational programs in public high schools to train workers for the construction industry.