Canada seeks updated climate change predictions for new building codes

OTTAWA — The National Research Council says Canada’s homes and highways were built with assumptions about weather patterns that are no longer relevant, thanks to climate change.

Now the NRC is asking for help to figure out what kind of weather to expect in the coming years, so it can revamp national building codes to ensure everything from houses and office towers to bridges and wastewater systems can withstand the consequences of a warmer planet. ``Canada’s buildings and public infrastructure systems ... are designed based on historic data assuming a stationary climate, and were not designed to accommodate certain extreme weather events being attributed to climate change,’’ reads a Nov. 6 tender issued by the council.