The unique building number (EDF_) is issued exclusively by the registry and permanently identifies a building or authorized project. Its format is specified in the technical specification under section 40 (REGULATION RESPECTING THE CENTRAL REGISTRY OF OPSI). It must never be reused, including after project cancellation or building demolition.
The registry guarantees EDF_ identifier uniqueness through controlled generation and collision checking. The EDF_ identifier remains unchanged upon any change of owner, address, cadastral lot, property assessment number, name or competent authority. It remains linked to the archived record and permanent building history.
Each EDF_ identifier contains in its location metadata a representative building point expressed using the reference system and fields defined in the technical specification. The registry also records the point type, source, collection or validation date, estimated accuracy and verification status. Elevation is optional and is collected only where justified in a particular situation.
Within applicable access rights, the coordinates may be made available through an interoperable geographic API, using the technical specification formats. Missing or uncertain coordinates are expressly identified; coordinates must never be fabricated to satisfy the format. Every correction preserves the previous value and its provenance. Coordinates alone do not determine legal jurisdiction, the applicability of obligations or a building’s administrative identity.
Where a document or administrative event concerns a building without an EDF_ identifier, the registry searches existing identifiers before issuing one and provides advance allocation or exceptional matching. Temporary absence of an EDF_ identifier never blocks a filing or mandatory safety notice.
Each officially received filing operation is given a distinct DEP_ identifier, including a free correction, revision or exceptional filing without an available EDF_ identifier. The registry retains links to the original DEP_ identifier, acknowledgments, document versions and previously paid fees; a single filing relating to several buildings has only one DEP_ identifier. A DEP_ identifier is not by itself evidence of compliance or an additional fee entitlement.
Every natural person performing an authenticated registry operation receives a permanent, non-reassignable personal SGN_ identifier, independently of profession or represented organization. An SGN_ identifier is neither a licence, a professional order registration number nor a general access entitlement. Successive authorization statuses, represented organizations, restrictions and revocations remain historically verifiable without changing the identifier. Each registered authority receives a unique AC_ identifier, separate from its triage keys and buildings’ EDF_ identifiers. The registry assigns each audit-log entry a unique EDJ_ identifier, distinct from a filing’s DEP_ identifier.
The formats of SGN_, AC_, DEP_ and EDJ_ codes and their generation arrangements are set by the technical specification. The registry guarantees uniqueness, checks for collisions and never reassigns a code; editorial ART_ identifiers remain distinct and stable.
Assignment and retention of an EDF_ identifier do not depend on the building’s jurisdiction category. A change between the “EDF_ — Competent authority” and “EDF_ — RBQ” categories never changes the identifier, results in no new allocation and preserves existing links to associated documents, filings, authorities, versions and audit-log entries.
The rules for assigning SGN_ identities and EDJ_ audit entries apply to every authorized official or pilot operation, before or after activation of a region. Ordinary filing and EDF_ identifier requirements become mandatory in a region only upon its legal activation, subject to official voluntary filings and other statutory exceptions.
The DPJ_ code format and generation are specified in the technical specification. The registry guarantees uniqueness, checks for collisions and never reassigns it.
Each DPJ_ identifier denotes an individual supplementary evidentiary file. It remains linked to the DEP_ identifier of the associated filing, notice or report, including where the linkage is established when both are first received. A DPJ_ exhibit added after the initial filing is a linked and logged operation; it does not become a separate professional document, trigger a second charge or require a new DEP_ identifier for a report.
For the purposes of this Regulation, the categories of official identifiers are as follows:
1° “EDF_” (unique building number): the official, permanent identifier issued exclusively by the registry to a building or proposed building; it remains linked to its history even after demolition or cancellation and may never be reassigned;
2° “DEP_” (unique filing number): a permanent, non-reassignable identifier generated by the registry upon receipt of each official filing operation, even where the link to a building must subsequently be regularized; it provides traceability of the filing, its acknowledgment, documents, versions and linked later operations without conflating them;
3° “SGN_” (signatory): the permanent, non-reassignable personal identifier of any authenticated natural person who signs a registry operation, including a filing, an observation, a search, a consultation, the retrieval of a copy or a download. This may be a member of the Order, an engineer, a professional technologist, an authorized representative of a competent authority or the Régie du bâtiment du Québec, a police officer, a coroner or any other legally authorized person. It is separate from that person’s title, licence, professional registration number and permissions;
4° “AC_” (competent authority): the unique permanent administrative identifier issued by the registry to each registered authority or recipient public body, including the Régie du bâtiment du Québec when acting in that capacity; it is separate from statutory jurisdiction and does not confer it;
5° “EDJ_” (audit-log entry): the permanent, non-reassignable identifier assigned to every entry in the registry’s audit log, distinct from filing and document identifiers;
6° “administrative triage key”: a reference specific to a competent authority, assigned by that authority to a building within its jurisdiction and linked to the building’s EDF_ identifier and the authority’s AC_ identifier; it replaces neither identifier.
7° “DPJ_” (supporting-exhibit filing): a unique, permanent, non-reassignable electronic identifier assigned by the registry to each supplementary evidentiary file associated with an official filing, notice or report; it identifies the exhibit, not a new professional report, compliance certificate or separate professional act. It is distinct from DEP_, EDF_, SGN_ and EDJ_ identifiers and does not, by itself, constitute a professional signature, approval or certification.
The prefixes EDF_, DEP_, DPJ_, SGN_, AC_ and EDJ_ identify the official codes for the categories defined in this section. They are assigned directly under the registry rules. An SGN_ identifier is neither a professional-order membership number nor a licence number. Permanent identifiers for legislative and regulatory provisions in the form ART_ remain distinct.
The technical specification sets out identifier specifications and interoperability arrangements. Conditions governing issuance, reconciliation, presentation on documents, correction of errors and retention of history remain governed by this regulation.
The Regulation prescribes the rules for linking a report or notice to one or more EDF_ identifiers, procedures to correct, merge or subdivide a building's administrative identity, and the simplified directory of systems and equipment. It preserves the distinction between each building's identity, links specific to a filing and each authority's separate applicability declarations.
The technical categories “EDF_ — Competent authority” and “EDF_ — RBQ” referred to in this Regulation serve solely to route notices administratively under the conditions set out in sections 25 (ACT RESPECTING FIRE SAFETY PRACTITIONERS) and 20 (ACT RESPECTING FIRE SAFETY PRACTITIONERS) of the Act. Their labels and identifier prefixes may be amended through the technical specification without changing those conditions, access rights, legally entitled recipients or the requirements for preservation and traceability.