What this means for Metro Vancouver strata councils
This guide covers what an electrical planning report is for strata corporations across Metro Vancouver. The requirements are province-wide, but two things are local to your council — the deadline you are working toward and the kind of building you manage.
Metro Vancouver carries the largest concentration of strata corporations in British Columbia — concrete highrises through Vancouver, Burnaby Metrotown, Coquitlam Burquitlam, and the New Westminster waterfront; townhouse-dominant stock through Surrey, Langley, Maple Ridge, and Delta; and 1980s wood-frame walk-ups still common across the older neighbourhoods. The region's deadline pressure (December 31, 2026 for EPRs and July 1, 2026 for Depreciation Reports) puts most councils in active planning mode.
- Electrical Planning Report (EPR): due December 31, 2026 for Metro Vancouver stratas of five or more lots, under the Strata Property Act.
- Depreciation Report: due July 1, 2026 if the strata has never had a report or its most recent report predates December 31, 2020.
The full guide
An Electrical Planning Report (EPR) is a regulated document that every strata corporation in British Columbia with five or more lots must obtain under the Strata Property Act. It assesses a building's electrical infrastructure, calculates how much spare capacity is actually available, models the demand that electrification (EV charging, heat pumps, gas-to-electric conversion) will add, and recommends the specific upgrades needed to support it. The EPR becomes part of the strata's permanent record and is disclosed to buyers, lenders, and insurers.
Why the EPR exists
Most BC strata buildings were wired for a different era — gas heat, gas hot water, and one vehicle per household. As owners electrify, the same building service has to carry far more load. The EPR gives a council a clear, evidence-based answer to a hard question: how much electrical capacity does this building actually have, what is constraining it, and what specific work changes that? The Strata Property Act does not allow that question to be answered with guesswork.
What a compliant EPR must contain
BC strata law sets out mandatory content. A compliant EPR includes:
- A physical, on-site inspection of every electrical room, switchgear lineup, transformer, and distribution panel — not a desktop review.
- Twelve months of utility consumption data (from BC Hydro or FortisBC, depending on the community) to establish real peak demand.
- Peak-demand, spare-capacity, and load-diversity calculations to electrical-code standards.
- Modelled future-electrification scenarios for EV charging, heat pumps, and electric domestic hot water.
- Demand-management and load-reduction strategies that can free capacity without a service upgrade.
- Upgrade recommendations, each with the amount of capacity it would unlock.
A narrow short-form variant also exists: where every strata lot receives electricity directly from the utility and the strata owns no electrical infrastructure of its own, Regulation 5.11(3) lets the report simply confirm that fact. Few stratas qualify, and eligibility still has to be confirmed on site — see our guide to short-form Electrical Planning Reports.
Who prepares it
The Qualified Person depends on the building. For Part 3 (complex) buildings, an EPR is signed and sealed by a Professional Engineer (P.Eng, EGBC), a Professional Licensee Engineering (P.L.Eng., EGBC), an Applied Science Technologist (AScT), or a Certified Technician (ASTTBC). For Part 9 (simple) buildings, a Journeyperson Electrician is also a Qualified Person. CF Electrical Services signs and seals each report with the credential the regulation calls for the building.
How it differs from electrical work
The EPR is a planning and report-writing exercise, not a construction contract. A consulting firm delivers the report; the strata then hires a separate licensed electrical contractor for any installation that follows. Keeping the two roles independent removes any conflict of interest from the recommendations.
Next steps for Metro Vancouver councils
When your council is ready to act, CF Electrical Services prepares Electrical Planning Reports, EV Ready Plans, and Depreciation Reports for stratas across Metro Vancouver — each signed and sealed by the credential the regulation calls for, and each written in plain language for the council and owners who have to use it.
- Electrical Planning Reports in Vancouver
- Electrical Planning Reports in Burnaby
- Electrical Planning Reports in Surrey
- Electrical Planning Reports in Richmond
- Electrical Planning Reports in Coquitlam
- Electrical Planning Reports in North Vancouver
- Electrical Planning Reports in West Vancouver
- Electrical Planning Reports in Langley
See all Metro Vancouver strata services, or browse the full guide library.
Written by CF Electrical Services — BC strata electrical consulting (Electrical Planning Reports, EV Ready Plans, and Depreciation Reports). Published May 20, 2026.