Apply for permit fee assistance for your cultural space construction and renovation permits

Removing the red tape: addressing the permit backlog

We are taking action to speed up our response and processing times and anticipate our first set of actions will save 10,000 hours.

Actions we are taking

To speed up response and processing times, we are temporarily:

Relaxing our permit application regulations and review process
Cutting steps from our process

Our goals:

Process your permits faster
Significantly reduce staff review times
Provide you with more predictable results

City Manager's task force:

Work is underway to identify the steps involved
Phased, multi-month process

Addressing our development and building permitting process has been a top priority for the past three years. However, like to many other organizations, the COVID-19 pandemic exposed underlying challenges with our processes.

With the closure of the Service Centre, we have had an exponential increase in requests. Currently, wait times for an application review are increasingly unmanageable, as well as are our permit processing times.

To clear the permit and license backlog, we are taking action to speed up our response and processing times.

Progress underway

Opportunity	Benefit	Anticipated savings	Status
Faster processing for some residential applications	Temporary removal of conditional guidelines and reviews for one- and two-family dwellings in specific neighbourhoods	12 weeks processing time per application	Approved by Council
Pilot a 12-month partial relaxation of the Tree By-law	Some tree permits for private property may be issued without an arborist review Trees smaller than 30cm diameter may be removed without a tree permit Existing trees may be removed if they impede the development of an accessory building (like a garage)	2 weeks processing time per application	Approved by Council
Landscape maintenance	Construction applicants are now responsible for landscape maintenance during demolitions, renovations, and field review	3 weeks processing time per application	Approved by Council
Improved data collection	Pilot new data collection model for ASHRAE compliance	2 weeks processing time per application	In progress
Waive penalties	Waive penalties for some instances previously unpermitted work for residential and commercial renovations	2 weeks processing time per application	In progress
Online enquiry form	Building and development enquiries can now be submitted through an online form, which provides a tracking number for status updates via 3-1-1	Significant savings in trips to City Hall, service levels, traceability of requests, and customer experience	Completed
Electronic plan submission (ePlan)	Electronic plan submission (ePlan) accepts electronic plans for six of eight permit types, electronic seals, and signatures	Significantly reduced costs related to printing, courier, drop off wait time, and customer experience	Completed
Inspections	Booking or cancelling an inspection is now a one-stop process with everything you need on one page	Improvements in efficiency, service levels, and customer experience	Completed

Our first round of updates relates to high volume residential applications. We will be reporting to Council in early fall with an update on the next items to implement.