ELORA – Centre Wellington’s chief building official made the case for a new hire in his department at the Nov. 23 council meeting.
And while Randy Bossence had an uphill battle, eventually he persuaded enough councillors of the need to gain approval.
Bossence said he needs a full-time building permit technologist as demand on his department has increased steadily since 2015.
That year he conducted 3,798 inspections; in 2019 he did 5,063 and in 2020 the projection is for at least 5,000 inspections.
As well, the department issued 812 building permits in 2015; 867 in 2018; 964 in 2019 and expects to issue 1,000 by the end of this year.
Bossence said the introduction of the new program CityView has allowed the department to maintain service levels during the pandemic.
“We were able to do everything online,” he said. “We’d have been in a poor position if we had not implemented CityView this year.”
But there are strict timelines under the Ontario Building Code Act in terms on conducting inspections and issuing permits that are difficult to meet and they were filling the gap with a contract position.
It’s difficult to find a qualified person willing to accept a time-limited contract, Bossence said. The most recent contract ended last December.
“I don’t see the business case for another person,” said councillor Bob Foster. “The number of permits has been pretty constant.”
“We are not adding a new position; we are making the contract position full-time,” Bossence said. “The business case is the numbers are the same.”
Bossence said with new subdivisions under construction and others coming down the pipe, the only way to meet the work load is to add more staff.
“We have time frames to meet and to meet the time frame, we need the people,” he said.
The position is funded through the building division reserve fund and not through property taxes. In the end, council voted in favour of the new full-time position with only Foster in opposition.
