Ed. note: this email was sent to Mayor Laura Cabott and city councillors on Wednesday afternoon. It’s being published here as a letter.
My name is Gabrielle and I am a local architectural draftsperson. I am reaching out to you about the still-ongoing problems of getting building permits approved by the City of Whitehorse.
I would like to specifically shed light on us, draftspersons and adjacent professionals affected by this problem. I have been doing architectural drawings for clients in Whitehorse for the last 12 years; I am no greenhorn.
Since March 2024, I have had tremendous difficulty in having my drawings approved, even with engineering stamping.
City officials flagging items from my drawings that are irrelevant to the project being presented, the incapacity to properly interpret my blueprints, insufficient information from the city to satisfy what they are requesting from the drawings are a sample of problems that are impeding my work.
This has cost extra money for my clients, who often are trying to improve their home to better perform.
In one case, a client might not be able to do a major energy retrofit this season because we are still meeting a brick wall with the city. This very same project would have been approved smoothly last year.
It has incurred loss of revenue for myself as well with all the back-and-forth with the city officials to try to suck information out of them, consuming my time that is not billable to clients. I could have spent this time working on projects to build more housing in the city instead.
The 2020 National Building Code has, in no stretch of the imagination, completely changed from the previous version.
This problem is far from being resolved. We, professionals in this industry, have little faith left that we will be able to exercise our professions without hindrance from the City of Whitehorse, which some of us would also call bullying.
I would challenge some of you seeking re-election to put forward solutions that will resolve this problem in earnest.
Some of us are already contemplating leaving this industry if this is the new ecosystem we have to deal with.
Gabrielle Dupont
Whitehorse
