In Canada(Provinces) the company with the sole right to publish such materials is typically appointed by the (Lieutenant)Governor General. An unelected, bureaucratically appointed privilege that is appointed by an unelected bureaucrat...go figure!
Having been forced to spend thousands on Fire Safety codebooks every year in order to maintain a professional knowledgebase in my previous career, I feel the whole thing is a racket, especially the selling of digital versions.
One of the worst parts of the whole system is most Codes refence other Codes in their prefixes. EG: Unless otherwise stated with this document the rules from XYZ Code are to be followed. This makes for a very deep and expensive CMA rabbit hole when you are required to purchase (or subscribe to) all these publications.