BC government to launch new digital building permitting tool for cities

The lineup at the City of Vancouver's Building Permit Office. (David Grewal)

With the help of the Government of British Columbia, municipal governments across the province will soon have access to a new digital tool to simplify and expedite the building permitting process.

This will help municipal governments greatly reduce the need to use paper-based applications, which contributes to delays and slow approval times.

According to the provincial government, builders and developers will be able to use the new digital tool to submit building permits for new housing. Municipal governments can also use the tool to receive and process the application.

Furthermore, in order to reduce labour time for City planners reviewing applications, the digital tool will automatically review the submitted proposal to ensure it is compliant with key parts of the BC Building Code to prevent any delays with the submission process.

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“People will soon see new homes approved faster as we make good on our commitment to position BC as a North American leader in digital permitting and construction,” said Ravi Kahlon, BC’s minister of housing, in a statement.

Lisa Beare, BC’s minister of citizens’ services, added, “A fast, efficient permitting process is key to ensuring infrastructure projects are able to move forward in a timely manner. Citizens’ Services staff are lending their expertise to help develop the new digital permitting tool which will help make this happen.”

The digital tool has been under development through a pilot partnership between the provincial government, 16 municipal governments, and one First Nation. These various local governments are expected to begin testing the use of the digital pool by March 2024. At a later date, the use of the tool will be expanded into other communities.

The provincial government notes it is also working on a modern housing development process that incorporates building information modelling (BIM). They are working with the National Research Council of Canada to make construction codes machine-readable, which will allow for more automated and faster permit reviews in the future beyond the improvement gains from the first iteration of the digital tool.

Last month, the provincial government also launched a single-application digital portal for provincial housing permits and authorizations.

Additionally, the provincial government has created a new “digital advisory council” comprised of representatives from 12 organizations in the housing development sector, including construction, engineers, architects, local governments, and tech.

“Digitizing the BC Building Code and building permit processing will help builders more efficiently obtain approvals to deliver the homes and job spaces British Columbians need,” said Anne McMullin, president and CEO of the Urban Development Institute (UDI).

In addition to creating a new province-led digital permitting tool for cities to use, as part of the broader strategy to reform permitting on the municipal level, the provincial government has also provided funding to individual municipal governments towards improving their permitting processes, including the creation of their own online and digital tools.

Earlier this year, the City of Vancouver announced and demonstrated the function of its new “eComply” and “PRET” digital platforms.

“eComply” is a design compliance check tool that allows applicants to upload their designs and drawings, check if they meet City regulations for a specific lot, and receive a compliance report that provides information on whether their proposal passed, failed, or not applicable. PRET, short for Project Requirements Exploration Tool, enables applicants to explore and understand regulations and requirements for specific locations across Vancouver. PRET launched this past summer, while “eComply” is slated to launch in early 2024.

Screenshot of eComply’s evaluation of a proposal’s compliance, with the areas highlighted in green being compliant and red being non-compliant. (City of Vancouver)

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