B.C. aims to speed up its permitting for housing with new strategy, hires

B.C. Premier David Eby is promising to streamline the provincial housing permitting processes — which can take up to two years — with a one-window application process aimed at dramatically reducing that time frame.

In the meantime, Eby has tasked Nathan Cullen, the Minister of Water Land and Resource Stewardship, with expediting applications already in the system for issues such as riparian area approvals, water licenses, road rezonings or heritage approvals, related to 1,000 to 1,200 residential permit applications.

“The goal is to reduce that dramatically to, I mean ultimately, a goal of months for approval from the current wait time of (two) years,” Eby said during the Monday announcement.

“And for some projects, we believe that there’s a possibility of providing advance approvals and ensuring that people know going in what they’re permitted to do so that it’s almost immediate.”

Eby said the province is asking a lot from municipalities in terms of setting objectives for developing much needed new units and encouraging them to streamline their own processes, so it was only fair that the province also look inward at its own processes that add to delays.