🔥 Register to Warm Up: Metro Vancouver’s Wood‑Burning Rule You Must Know! 🌿

Are you snuggling up by a fireplace or using a wood or pellet stove in Metro Vancouver? Good news—there's no cost—but there’s a new rule: you must register your appliance and declare you burn cleanly.

📜 What Is Bylaw 1303?

Metro Vancouver Regional District’s “Residential Indoor Wood Burning Emission Regulation Bylaw No. 1303, 2020” aims to reduce harmful wood smoke emissions from homes and safeguard air quality and public health. It came into force in stages from 2020 through 2025.
👉 Read the full bylaw here (PDF)

Who & What Is Affected?

Homes within Metro Vancouver’s Urban Containment Boundary—which includes Richmond, Vancouver, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Surrey, and more—must comply if they use any of these:

• Open fireplaces

• Wood stoves or inserts

• Pellet stoves

• Masonry heaters

• Wood-burning furnaces
  👉 Check eligibility and locations here

✅ What You Must Do

1. Submit a Declaration of compliance with best burning practices (Schedule B).

2. Register each eligible device before September 15, 2025. No fee—registration is free.
   👉 Register your wood-burning device

Fail to comply, and after initial education and warnings, you could face fines ranging from $100 to $500.
👉 More info on enforcement and penalties

🪵 What Are Best Burning Practices?

• Burn only clean, seasoned wood (≤ 20% moisture), pellets, or approved firelogs

• Never burn garbage, treated or painted wood, plastics or rubber

• Keep fires small, hot and avoid smoldering

• Only visible smoke during startup—and no more than 20 minutes in any 4‑hour period

• Maintain your appliance properly and inspect regularly
  👉 Best practices guide

🚫 Seasonal Restrictions & Exceptions

• Burning is prohibited from May 15 to September 15 each year — unless:

  • Your wood device is your sole source of heat

  • You live off‑grid outside the urban containment boundary

  • There’s an emergency (e.g., power outage lasting over 3 hours)
    👉 More on seasonal rules

• From September 15, 2025, unregistered devices can no longer be used—except for low income households or emergencies.

📝 Device Registration Eligibility

You can register devices that:

• Meet Canadian or US certification standards, or emit ≤ 4.5 g/hour of fine particulates (Schedule A)

• Are the sole source of heating in your home

• Operate exclusively with manufactured firelogs and emit no visible smoke
  👉 Device registration info and form

You’ll need documentation like model info, certification labels, receipts, or a declaration, depending on eligibility.

🖋️ Penalties & Enforcement

Metro Vancouver will begin with educational outreach, then warnings. Continued non‑compliance may lead to municipal tickets or notices, and fines up to:

• $500 for violations of declarations or registration requirements

• Up to $10,000 for ongoing offences or false information submitted

🧾 Summary Table

🌟 Why It Matters

Wood burning is the largest contributor of fine particulate air pollution in Metro Vancouver. These particles harm lungs and heart—especially in children, seniors, and those with respiratory conditions. Bylaw 1303 is designed to curb that pollution and keep community air cleaner.
👉 About the air quality program

💡 Call to Action: What You Should Do Now

1. Visit Metro Vancouver’s online Residential Indoor Wood Burning System to declare compliance and register devices if needed.
   👉 Start here

2. Gather your appliance info (model, certification, fuel type).

3. If renting or in a strata, notify your property manager or strata corp—they must ensure compliance too.

4. Practice clean burning moving forward!

🔥 Don’t be caught out this winter—declare, register, and burn clean!

💬 Tara Kennedy
Realtor® | Tri-Cities Real Estate
📞 236-992-8989
📧 TaraKennedySells@gmail.com
🌐 www.tarakennedy.ca

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