The city’s major building permit backlog still has many contractors and home builders in a lengthy holding pattern for some lots – but there might be hope for the upcoming month.
As mayoral candidate Kirk Cameron said recently, city manager Jeff O’Farrell is aiming to have the issue resolved by next month, although Cameron, a city councillor, stressed he cannot speak on behalf of the city.
“So, we’re saying, ‘get things out the door so that they have August, September, and hopefully October to build external structures,’” Cameron told The Yukon Star last week. “They can then spend the winter inside doing the internal work on facilities that are closed in.”
As the Star has reported, some local builders say the prolonged waits for building permits from city hall is delaying projects, thus exacerbating the housing shortage, and are having job security implications for the staffs of some companies.
O’Farrell has come up with a multi-faceted plan. It involves recruiting retired individuals, inspectors who can work on going through permits in the short term, and hiring a contractor from B.C.
“They can do a lot of this permitting online. He doesn’t even have to be here in person, and he has the authority to do so,” Cameron said.
O’Farrell, Cameron said, is now on “full horsepower,” moving on a number of fronts to make the permitting happen as soon as possible, while ensuring the safety aspects of how the city goes through those permits are maintained.
Cameron brought up a couple of points that could be the reason for the backlog. Although Whitehorse is becoming a larger city, at the current stage, what the city can do is still limited when it comes to solving a lot of things happening at the same time, and the loss of two of the five existing staff.
On the other hand, he’s heard that there have been some National Building Code changes.
“We have to balance two things,” Cameron said. “On one side, we have to make sure that buildings are built and that all the work is done to meet the rules that are in place, not just at the City of Whitehorse, but all the way up to the federal government with their building code,” he said.
As a mayoral candidate, he believes the balance is important between both economic development and the quality of the building.
“The conversation has not happened to find that balance between a positive economic building agenda and the protection of the individual in terms of a good, solid piece of construction,” said Cameron.
“We will need all the standards in the codes that are necessary for us to feel comfortable that we’re buying a home that is well supported by the building codes of Canada.”
The Star asked Coun. Mellisa Murray, who is also seeking the mayoralty, to discuss the building permit backlogs. She responded that she had no comment.
