The city needs clarity from the GNWT on its regulatory powers before it gets to work on its review and overhaul of building bylaws, said city administrators Monday.
The GNWT and the city of Yellowknife need to clear up jurisdictional gray areas before it can get to work on its building bylaw review, said planning director Nalini Naidoo.
During a municipal services council meeting, director of planning and development Nalini Naidoo told councillors administration needs council direction on whether it should ask the GNWT's Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) to delegate greater regulatory powers to the city.
In the Yukon and Nunavut, there is territorial legislation that lays out municipal jurisdiction over building bylaws, said Naidoo in an interview with Yellowknifer.
That legislation is non-existent in the NWT, creating uncertainty about the breadth of services the municipality could offer to builders and developers beyond issuing building permits, said Naidoo.
In the meantime, applicants under the building bylaw are often in contact with multiple authorities to get their work done, she said.
“There is a sense of awareness on the frustration that's felt when one applicant has to go to sometimes up to three regulatory authorities to have a building completed,” said Naidoo.
“Some ... questions are about consistency across the Northwest Territories,” she said, of contractors that work outside of Yellowknife's city centre.
“It's been a gray area for a long time between the city and the GNWT and this might be an opportune time to answer some of those questions,” said Naidoo.
Coun. Neils Konge had questions about the role of MACA in advancing the review.
Council can direct administrators to seek a delegation agreement, said Naidoo.
If council seeks out additional jurisdiction for the city, MACA must still evaluate the city's bandwidth for extra services.
“It's another level of government that has to do a review of our administration to decide if we can do it. They have to assess our ability as the city of Yellowknife to perform the duties that we're asking for,” she said.
The issue of jurisdiction has persisted between the two orders of government for years, said Naidoo.
Administration is recommending streamlining the building permit process, but any such change requires greater territorial direction, she said.
The existing system, so far, only works because of a “really good working relationship” between municipal government and the GNWT.
“As the city of Yellowknife, we're trying to improve customer service and this is a way of improving coordination for people who want to build and develop in our community,” she said.
“If the city can help streamline the services, it will. We would have control over how helpful we can be,” she said.
In an interview with Yellowknifer, Coun. Niels Konge said he ran for council on the issue of building inspections, and that he'll run again to push for the building bylaw review and its recommendations to be implemented, he said.
If inspectors make a decision, there is no appeal mechanism, he said.
“I pushed very hard and its part of the review that's happened, that there's an appeal process for contractors and developers. That is really important that we get that in place.”
If the city is delegated extra authority, it could shorten permitting timelines, said Konge.
“There's a lot of frustration in the industry with a variety of things and the building bylaw review has made some very good recommendations. As administration was looking into this, they found out they'd never been delegated the authority to do any of it,” he said.
In the Okanagan, builders without any variances can acquire development and building permits in the same place, he said.
Land, capital and human resources can be tied up in the permitting process “before you even get into the ground,” said Konge.
“The city needs to be able to change and evolve so that we have an atmosphere where developers can be encouraged and they don't feel like its a hindrance with the city,” said Konge.
“It's really difficult to kick start this stuff without the GNWT's attention to these matters ... and it is frustrating. We can't get more people to move here because we have no land to develop,” said Konge.
“We need the GNWT to look at the building bylaw and all the stuff that affects us,” he said. “It's all tied together and we're just on this treadmill that never ends.”