Electrical Planning Reports for BC Stratas: The 2026 Deadline

Why this deadline matters now

If your strata corporation has five or more strata lots, BC law now requires you to obtain an electrical planning report, often shortened to EPR. For stratas in Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Capital Regional District, the deadline is December 31, 2026. For the rest of BC, it is December 31, 2028. The report helps your building plan for rising electrical demand, including electric vehicle charging and heat pumps.

This is not optional, and owners cannot vote to skip it. Councils that start early avoid a common bottleneck: the report usually depends on electrical load data from BC Hydro, and both those data requests and qualified providers get busier as the deadline approaches.

What an electrical planning report is

An electrical planning report is a professional assessment of your building's electrical system. It looks at how much capacity you have today and how much you might need as residents add EV chargers, heat pumps, and other electric equipment. The requirement comes from section 94.1 of the Strata Property Act and sections 5.7 to 5.12 of the Strata Property Regulation.

An EPR is not the same as an EV Ready Plan. An EV Ready Plan focuses only on charging and includes a budget for a specific project; it is optional and used mainly to apply for rebates. The EPR is the report the law actually requires. You can read the Province's overview on the BC government electrical planning report page.

Which deadline applies to your strata

December 31, 2026 for strata corporations in the Metro Vancouver Regional District, the Fraser Valley Regional District, and the Capital Regional District.

December 31, 2028 for strata corporations everywhere else in BC, including most of the Interior, the North, and the Southern Gulf Islands.

Five years from the date the strata plan was filed at the Land Title Office for newer stratas created after December 31, 2023.

Stratas with fewer than five strata lots are not required to get a report, though they may choose to.

One detail worth checking: islands within the 2026 districts that are accessible only by air or boat generally have until December 31, 2028. If you are unsure which category your strata falls into, confirm your regional district before you plan.

Who can prepare the report

Only certain qualified professionals can complete an EPR. Depending on your building type, that can include a professional engineer with electrical qualifications, an applied science technologist, or, for some buildings, a journeyperson electrician. Your council does not prepare the report itself; you hire a qualified provider to do it.

How councils can get ready

1

Confirm your deadline based on where your strata is located.

2

Budget for the report. Councils can usually approve this spending from the operating fund at a council meeting.

3

Request your building's electrical load data early, since BC Hydro data requests can take several weeks.

4

Choose a qualified provider and confirm they can deliver before your deadline.

5

File the completed report with your strata records so future councils and owners can find it.

If you are already tracking one major deadline, you are not alone. Many councils are handling the EPR alongside the depreciation report deadline, which follows a similar plan-ahead pattern.

Keeping the report where owners can find it

Once you have your EPR, it becomes part of your strata's permanent records. It will be requested during unit sales, referenced when owners ask about EV charging, and relied on by future councils. Storing it in a shared, searchable place, rather than in one council member's inbox, keeps the information available as council membership changes. This is the kind of record OpenStrata is built to keep in one accessible place for councils and owners.