I strongly oppose the…

I strongly oppose the implementation of Certified Professionals

As a design administrator, I have compiled and submitted building permit applications in almost every major municipality in the country, as well as many smaller municipalities.

In my experience, municipalities that have the CP programme have the least efficient, lengthiest, and costliest (due to having to pay an outside consultant on top of building permit fees) building permit processes in the whole country.

An example: retail franchise, 2 different cities: Calgary – all digital, took 3 weeks from time of submission to permit approval, very clear instructions, very easy to communicate with City’s building department. Vancouver (using the CP stream) – all paper, took 8 MONTHS, had to submit via a CP which charged hourly for minutia & cost our client almost $20K.

Also, in general, British Columbia is the absolute least efficient in terms of the building permit application process. I am very concerned this is being contemplated as a model.

I would typically expect between 4-8 weeks for a permit approval in Ontario, depending on the size of the municipality. I think this process will only benefit the “certified professionals”.