BC Government Takes Steps to Streamline Homebuilding Permit Application Process

The British Columbia provincial government announced today (1-16-23) that it was taking action to move forward with efforts to streamline the homebuilding process.

Presently, authorizations related to homebuilding in BC can require multiple provincial permit applications, which span different ministries with different processes. This includes permits related to riparian area approvals, water licenses, transportation approvals, roading rezoning, contamination sites, and requirements for heritage inspections.

The new Permitting Strategy for housing will streamline the process and create a single, coordinated approach to housing related permits and authorizations. This will speed up the process and eliminate the need for multiple applications across various ministries. While the single application window is being established over the coming months, permit and authorization decisions will be expedited through a cross-ministry team focused solely on processing housing permits. The Housing Action Task Force includes decision makers, information technology systems, project managers, and policy support teams working together to speed up the processing.

In addition, a coordinated provincial approach is also expected to make application reviews more streamlines for First Nations, which are consulted on each provincial authorization.