What is the EPR deadline for Northern BC stratas?

Strata corporations across Northern BC of five or more lots must have a current Electrical Planning Report by December 31, 2028 under the Strata Property Act.

What is an Electrical Planning Report, in one sentence?

A high-level overview of a strata building's electrical capacity and its future demands, which every BC strata corporation with five or more strata lots must obtain by its regional deadline.

Is an Electrical Planning Report mandatory in BC?

Yes. Under the Strata Property Act, every strata corporation in British Columbia of five or more lots must obtain an Electrical Planning Report by its regional deadline: December 31, 2026 in the Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Capital regional districts, and December 31, 2028 elsewhere.

Is an Electrical Planning Report the same as an EV Ready Plan?

No. The Province describes the EPR as a general overview of the strata's electrical capacity and demands, and the EV Ready Plan as a detailed plan for EV charging in every parking stall. The EPR is required; the EV Ready Plan is optional, and a BC Hydro rebate of up to $3,000 pays toward it.

Can we install EV chargers based on the EPR alone?

No. The Province is explicit that the EPR is not a detailed analysis and cannot by itself inform the installation of new electrical loads. A qualified professional selects the equipment and confirms capacity when the work is planned.

What an Electrical Planning Report Is — Northern BC Strata

What this means for Northern BC strata councils

This guide covers what an electrical planning report is for strata corporations across Northern BC. 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.

Northern BC — Prince George, Fort St. John, Dawson Creek, Terrace, Kitimat, and Prince Rupert — has a smaller strata footprint than the southern half of the province but distinctive building stock: 1970s industrial-expansion era wood-frame walk-ups in Kitimat and Prince Rupert, 1980s walk-ups in central Prince George, and townhouse-dominant inventory through the Peace River municipalities.

Electrical Planning Report (EPR): due December 31, 2028 for Northern BC stratas of five or more lots, under the Strata Property Act.

The full guide

The short answer: an Electrical Planning Report (EPR) is a high-level overview of your building's electrical capacity and the demands it will face in the future. Every BC strata corporation with five or more strata lots must have one, by December 31, 2026 or December 31, 2028 depending on where the strata is. It tells your council how much electricity the building can carry, how much it already uses, how much room is left, and what adding EV charging, heat pumps and other electric equipment would ask of it.

That is most of what a council needs to know. The rest of this page fills in the detail in plain language.

A check-up, not a construction plan

The Province describes the EPR as a high-level planning tool. It is an overview of capacity and future demands, not a detailed analysis, and it cannot by itself be used to install new electrical equipment. When the strata or an owner later wants to add a charger or a heat pump, a qualified professional selects the equipment and confirms the capacity at that point, with the EPR as the starting picture.

A useful way to think about it: the EPR is the building's electrical check-up. It measures where things stand and flags what would need attention, so that later decisions start from facts instead of guesses.

What is in it

The required content is set out in the Strata Property Regulation. The Province summarizes it as information about:

the current capacity of the strata's electrical system;
the existing demands on that system;
an estimate of peak demand and of the spare capacity left over;
an estimate of the capacity needed for future demands such as EV charging and heat pumps; and
recommendations for managing and reducing demand. The Province's own example is freeing up capacity by switching to LED lighting.

In CF Electrical Services' reports, those numbers rest on two things: a property assessment of the building's electrical rooms and equipment, which the Province's guidance recommends, and twelve months of consumption data from BC Hydro or FortisBC. Our guide to what an EPR must contain lists every required item.

What it is not

It is not an EV Ready Plan. The Province describes the EPR as a general overview of the strata's capacity and demands, and an EV Ready Plan as a detailed plan for EV charging in every parking stall. The EV Ready Plan is optional, and a BC Hydro rebate of up to $3,000 pays toward it. See What is an EV Ready Plan?
It is not a work order. The report describes the building and its options. Any electrical work that follows is a separate decision your council makes, with the report in hand.

Who reads it, and for how long

The EPR becomes a permanent record of the strata corporation. It must be disclosed on the Form B Information Certificate when owners or prospective purchasers ask for it, so it will be read by people who were never at the council table, for years. The Province recommends the report leave out council members' personal contact information and project price quotes, and it notes the value of a report that is clearly written and easy to understand.

What it sets in motion

Once a strata has its EPR, or once its deadline has passed, whichever comes first, owner requests to install EV charging follow the process in the Strata Property Act: a request cannot be unreasonably refused, and council must decide within three months. The EPR is the document council leans on when it answers. Our guide to owner EV-charging requests walks through it.

The short-form exception

A narrow short-form report exists: where every strata lot receives electricity directly and separately from the utility, rather than through the strata's own common-property system, Regulation 5.11(3) lets the report record the preparer's qualifications and confirm that arrangement. Most stratas do not qualify, and eligibility is confirmed from the building itself.

How CF Electrical Services prepares one

One team handles your report from the first call to final delivery: a fixed-price proposal, the property assessment, the request for your BC Hydro or FortisBC consumption data, the report in plain language, a presentation to your council when you want one, and answers to your questions afterwards. See our Electrical Planning Report page, or request a fixed-price proposal.

Want the long version?

Authoritative sources

Strata electrical planning report, Province of British Columbia overview page.
Guidance for the Preparation of Electrical Planning Reports, Province of British Columbia (May 2026).
Strata Property Regulation, BC Laws.

Next steps for Northern BC councils

When your council is ready to act, CF Electrical Services prepares Electrical Planning Reports and EV Ready Plans for stratas across Northern BC — everything written in plain language for the council and owners who have to use it. When the plan becomes a project, we can manage that too.

See all Northern BC strata services, or browse the full guide library.

Written by CF Electrical Services — BC strata electrical consulting: Electrical Planning Reports, EV Ready Plans, and electrification project management. Published September 17, 2026.

What an Electrical Planning Report Is: A Guide for Northern BC Strata Councils