The city’s longstanding delays in issuing building permits have forced some contractors to stop their work – and have left many house builders scratching their heads.

“We can’t work,” John Vogt, the owner of local house builder Vogt Homes, told The Yukon Star Tuesday.

“I’m angry. We raised this issue at the beginning of spring, it came up, we went, we talked to people, and we said this is a problem, and we are going to lose our season,” said Vogt.

The company has six lots that can be worked on, but without building permits from the city, workers simply can’t do anything. Normally, the company can find smaller jobs if there are no lots to work on, but that’s when the building permit delays aren’t an issue.

“If you want to do a renovation, build a deck, you need a permit for it, and they just sit at the same point in a queue,” he said.

Though there are some small tasks Vogt Homes can do, like building fences or a shed measuring fewer than 100 square feet, there weren’t enough needs in the city to keep the company busy.

Based on the last four to five years’ average, the company would be able to build four to five houses in a year. At this point, the number could drop to two. The situation has already shown signs of causing the company financial problems.

“I owe the Yukon government on those lots,” Vogt said. “I’m going to have to pay another 20 per cent down in the upcoming spring on them.

“I need to build some houses to sell so I can move forward. It is a pretty big financial burden of not being able to work but owing money on stuff,” he explained.

The current wait time on his next project has lengthened to eight weeks – substantially longer compared to previous years.

The company is trying to keep its five employees busy and paid. Vogt said he was feeling fortunate that one of his workers quit before the building permit backlog began; otherwise, he would likely have had to lay off some of them.

“I might have two building permits this year,” he said. “If I get them, it will take me until maybe January or February, and then I won’t have any work for my guys and then layoffs will have to happen.”

Vogt called the city last week and was told there were still 33 applications ahead of his.

He’s heard from other companies they’re having to assign their employees to non-related jobs to keep them paid, like washing vehicles and sweeping shops.

He told the Star the problems began during the spring, after the city hired a new chief building inspector and there was suddenly an “influx” of new requirements. The level of details required in applications has been changed, something he described as “nitpicky.” He’d like the city to return to its previous way of reviewing applications.

“I don’t mean that we want to build crappy houses; we want to build quality houses, but we need a building permit to get it started,” he said.

Now, the company has managed to source some jobs outside city limits.

“But with all the money tied up in the lots (within the city), we just can’t do big jobs out there,” Vogt said. “We need to work on these ones, or we’re going to go broke.”

Earlier this month, a review of how to address the building permit applications backlog was raised by city administration, which has cited a staff shortage as part of the problem.

The city also launched a hiring process for more building permit inspectors, and has asked for help from the territorial government. 

The Star has inquired about what the city has sought from YG, but has received no response.