The continuing delays in the city’s ability to issue building permits is having “a real economic impact,” says city councillor Ted Laking.

A motion he proposed was discussed during Monday’s council meeting. It addressed how to deal with the ongoing backlog of building permit applications due to city staffing issues which were discussed at a meeting this past spring.

The motion was voted down, with four council members opposed and three in favour.

“Currently, there are 71 applications in review, and 55 on hold. The wait time for approval can be up to eight weeks,” said Laking.

Since the July 2 council meeting, he and his colleagues have heard concerns from the building industry about the mounting backlog, Laking said. The problem, he added, has been worsening rather than improving.

Although his motion was not passed, he believes the discussion will serve as a wake-up call for the administration, sending a clear signal that “we need to do better.

“Ultimately, this is about getting homes built,” he emphasized.

Laking described a chain reaction, where the inability to build homes leads to a housing shortage, which in turn impacts the supply chain.

“Business is down because people aren’t purchasing supplies for houses right now. They can’t get their permits, and this will have a real economic impact,” he said.

Laking came to the meeting with potential solutions, suggesting the city learn from other municipalities like Kelowna, B.C. by using Artificial Intelligence (AI).

“At the Federation of Municipalities’ annual general meeting, the city manager of Kelowna gave a presentation on how their city is dealing with their backlog on building permits,” he said.

“One of the ways they did this was by partnering with Microsoft to develop an AI solution to help streamline and simplify some of the lower-risk projects like decks and things like that.” 

He believes this approach would free up a lot of time for city staff to deal with more complicated projects.

Acting transit manager Jason Bradshaw pointed out the city’s administration has tried to engage outside help with the permit process, such as conducting a search for additional building inspectors throughout the country. The city has already hired two more inspectors.

Mayor Laura Cabott expressed confusion about what the motion would accomplish. She noted it only mentioned that “we will direct the administration to reduce the backlog by making improvements,” but did not suggest any specific steps.

“I don’t see how this motion would get us any further by Aug. 5th,” said Cabott. (That’s the date members will come back after taking their annual summer break.)

City manager Jeff O’Farrell mentioned that administration has also been working on other improvements like an online portal for the permitting process.

The portal, which is well under development, should go public early next year. It will enable the public to see the stage of their permits and whether any additional information is needed.

Councillor Kirk Cameron believes there may be other changes that council is not aware of. He suggested asking senior-level staff to investigate and work from there. He added he does not believe that solving these types of problems should take additional time.

“It’s just going to refocus senior administration to spend more time thinking about this, and maybe find some solutions,” said Cameron.

“Councillor Laking, through his motion, is asking to come back to this council, so we can be visible and transparent to our community,” he said.

Councillor Michelle Friesen asked if moving past this motion could potentially cause a further delay in permit processing. She asked if there could be a long-term fix for the delay, even if it means sacrificing a short period of time.

O’Farrell said it’s hard for administration to determine at this point.

Councillor Dan Boyd raised a complaint he has received, indicating there is a lot of back-and-forth between developers and the city regarding the checklist of steps builders have to take, and returned applications. He believes this should be fixed, perhaps by using one master checklist.

O’Farrell said he is not aware of such a complaint, but is willing to address the issue once administration receives it.