Please accept my comments on…

Please accept my comments on proposed changes to Ontario’s Building Code. I urgently request that you incorporate the Canadian Standards Association A460:19 – Bird Collision Mitigation Strategies – into the building code. The cost of such provisions is negligible within the scope of construction projects, and would fall even further if they were mandatory, due to standardization and economies of scale.

Within Ontario, vast numbers of birds are killed each year due to collisions with windows. This is a problem not just in the Greater Toronto Area and other large cities, but throughout the province. For example, in the last few years, external glass railings have become very commonplace on single family homes, and the vast majority of them are installed without any consideration of bird safety. I have even seen bird feeders attached directly on such unprotected glass railings – true death traps.

I am dismayed that Ontario’s Bill 23 has eradicated bird-friendly design guidelines that were in effect in many municipalities. Upcoming changes to the Building Code offer an opportunity to level the playing field and incorporate sensible and cost-effective construction measures throughout the province, while furthering the goals of the “Made-in-Ontario Environment Plan.”