Global Membership Council Profile: Richard Bushey.

BOABC Executive Director Richard Bushey (third from right) appears with the city of Kelowna Building Department during its recognition as the first building department in Canada to achieve IAS Accreditation at the 2013 BOABC Fall Education Conference.

Richard Bushey's appreciation for building codes began long before his involvement with ICC and well before he joined the Building Officials' Association of British Columbia (BOABC). It began when he saw a story in a Montreal newspaper about the need for housing for the Inuit, the indigenous, nomadic people of the Canadian Arctic, who were moving "off the land" into settlements. Six months later, he was managing crown-corporation building communities across the Eastern Arctic and training local aboriginal people to erect and operate community infrastructure. He lived and worked in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut for 25 years. During this period, he also took a sabbatical, and received a graduate fellowship to study architecture and urban design at the Architectural Association School of Architecture in London, which included travel and study in Russia. After graduation, he returned to Canada and served for 10 years as the executive director of the NWT Construction Association, an organization of 150 contractors building across the circumpolar regions in Canada and Russia. Bushey then moved to Vancouver, to take over as the first executive director of the Building Officials' Association of British Columbia. During that time, he worked closely with ICC's Training, Education and Certification Department to develop building official qualification examinations in the ICC format for British Columbia and other jurisdictions to fit Canadian building codes. Bushey also served on the ICC BIPS Committee for three years. During that time, Bushey met International Accreditation Service President Chuck Ramani at an ICC Annual Conference, where Ramani was conducting a course on the Building Department Accreditation program. After taking the course, he worked with IAS staff to introduce the program to Canada. The city of Kelowna, British Columbia, became the first jurisdiction, outside of the U.S. to have its building department accredited through IAS. Bushey, like so many others, was impressed with IAS/ICC programs and staff. Although Bushey retired in 2014, he continues to volunteer extensively. He is particularly focused on community disaster preparedness and relief, especially related to earthquakes — a concern, especially for those who live on the coast in the Pacific Northwest. He believes the Global Membership Council is the perfect opportunity to share ideas and resources and make connections throughout the international community. He is particularly supportive of ventures such as international swap programs, which recruit building officials from other jurisdictions in Canada, for example, to help communities recovering from natural disasters in Christchurch, New Zealand. "It's amazing what the Council is able to achieve around the world," Bushey says. "It's not just a job. The Council really cares about communities, raising awareness about building codes and providing the resources to accomplish goals." Bushey continues to consult for the building community and participates in a number of volunteer organizations, including the Global Membership Council.

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