The City of Prince George told residents it is “working to address concerns about wait times for building inspection services” amidst staffing shortages in a media release issued the afternoon of Wednesday, June 11.
The release said that like other local governments in the province, Prince George is both experiencing building inspector shortages causing delays and competing with other municipalities to hire new inspectors.
“These vacancies span all levels of building inspection roles, from entry-level to chief building officials,” the release stated. “This province-wide trend reflects the challenges many communities are facing in recruiting and retaining qualified inspection staff.”
Because of the situation, the city said it is recruiting for vacant building inspector positions on an ongoing basis, starting mentoring for new staff as soon as possible and contracting out some inspection services to contractors on a short-term basis.
“We are confident that these measures are already resulting in service improvements. Ensuring continuity of service to the public remains a top priority, and we have been extremely proactive in responding to these issues,” director of planning and development Deanna Wasnik said in the release.
“It is important to emphasize that the city is committed to supporting development. We want businesses to open, grow, and succeed. At the same time, we have a duty to ensure all construction projects meet the health and safety requirements outlined in the BC Building Code and the BC Fire Code. That responsibility cannot be compromised.”
The release added that the city has decreased its backlog of building permit applications by 73 per cent, though the total number of backlogged applications was not listed.
Reached by phone on Wednesday, June 11, Wasnik said the building inspection division has three positions.
Two of these positions are currently filled, including an inspector who started a couple of months ago, and another new inspector is set to join the team in the near future.
Of the two currently employed inspectors, one is a level 1 inspector and the other is a level 2 inspector.
The city does not currently have any level 3 inspectors, who are qualified to inspect commercial, industrial and some multi-family developments.
However, Wasnik said, the city’s inspectors aren’t responsible for inspecting those kinds of developments. Instead, they use a professional reliance model that sees registered professionals review the different phases of building as a project progresses, with level 3 inspectors reviewing the final paperwork to decide whether a permit is issued.
As the city does not have any level 3 inspectors, this work is contracted to outside inspection services like the ones mentioned in the release.
Those external inspectors, Wasnik said, were identified through a public procurement process that created a rotating list of qualified professionals that can help with level three projects. They can also step in to help with level one or two projects as well.
From January until May 23, Wasnik said, the city received 250 building permit applications with 120 of those coming in March alone.
“That’s a massive influx of applications to receive in one month for the city and it’s not typical,” she said. “But what happened was the BC Building Code had an update, if I can call it that, that was being implemented and became effective at the end of March, so builders were trying to beat that change.”
Typically, she said, there are between 35 and 50 permit applications a month. With 120 applications in March, Wasnik said even a fully staffed inspection division would have found it a lot to process.
As for why the city sent out the release, Wasnik said that customers have been calling to ask about staffing shortages they’ve heard of on social media and what that might mean for their projects.
Going forward, she said, she would be happy to keep the public and groups like the Canadian Home Builders Association and the Northern Regional Construction Association in the loop about what’s going on with the inspection division.
The issue was also brought up during a discussion regarding building permits issued in April at the May 26 city council meeting. Coun. Trudy Klassen said council had been hearing concerns from the local building community regarding delays and asked city manager Walter Babicz if he could give them any assurances.
“The city, like many other cities, is experiencing a temporary vacancy in the building inspection department,” Babicz said. “Staff are working diligently to create contingency plans and be proactive in terms of finding alternate resources and working to improve the situation. We appreciate the patience that the building community is expressing.”
Babicz then referenced the short-term contracts and turned to Wasnik to further discuss the situation and how the city intends to improve matters.
“We are working diligently and if there are concerns with building permits, occupancy permits, business licenses to please reach out and we’re happy to work through with our customers through perhaps the outstanding information needed to allow for an approval,” Wasnik said.
“But from what we can see in our stats, yes we have vacancies and yes we have, I think, addressed them very quickly and efficiently for the time that we were provided to address these shortages.”
She said she appreciated the building community’s patience in working with the city through “perhaps a bit of a bumpy time.”
After Wasnik finished speaking, Coun. Brian Skakun said he received a call from a developer before the start of a closed council session earlier that day expressing frustration over delays.
Coun. Cori Ramsay said Prince George builds quickly compared to other communities in BC, with multi-family developments taking 18 months to build elsewhere and just six months here. Once the department is fully staffed up again, she said it would be "off to the races."
