An independent review is being done to find ways to improve the building permit process for the city of Regina.
The city says this comes after several developers and people have approached council with concerns about how long it takes to get a permit approved.
Mayor Michael Fougere said there’s a short construction season, so there’s added pressure to get permits in and done.
“The key component that’s going to be engaging the industry and individuals to see what works (and) what doesn’t work, what can we do better, how can we make this efficient,” Fougere said. “The goal would be for those to say who want to come to our city to build, create jobs and invest to say we have a very efficient process to go through, and it makes them want to come here all the more.”
Fougere said the review will include the online version, which won’t be ready until the fall.
“We’re also looking at the building inspection process as well,” Fougere said. “That also takes time to do that and those delays may be founded, may be unfounded, and we want to make sure again, that the building review process, after the building starts of course, is done as efficiently and as quickly as possible as well.”
Fougere said the current wait time is anywhere from eight-to-12 weeks.
“Just depends on the complexity of them; the more elaborated and complicated the application, the longer it takes of course,” Fougere said. “Even for residential ones or small business renovations, it can take many weeks , and that’s part of the frustration.”
There is no word on what firm will be doing the review nor on how much it will cost.
