Status of building permits online
SYDNEY — Beginning Monday, developers, contractors and homeowners will be able to go online to check the status of a particular building permit.
A link on the main page of the Cape Breton Regional Municipality’s website (www.cbrm.ns.ca) will open a portal where a personal identification number will be keyed in to access information pertaining to a building permit application.
The PIN will be provided at the time the building permit is submitted to the municipality, Rick Fraser, the CBRM’s manager of inspections and bylaws, said on Monday.
“For example, if your (site) plan examination has been finished or if your zoning has been approved or if your water and sewer is approved, you’ll find out at a glance what stage you’re at as each permit is approved,” he said.
In the case where a building permit hasn’t been approved, the inspector’s name and contact information would be readily available to contact him to figure out what’s holding up the process.
Fraser said the new online computer program is meant to speed up the permitting process and to keep contractors and homeowners in the know.
A few tweaks to the system were made about a month ago following a meeting with developers and contractors, he said.
“Right now, they can phone us or fax in a request for a building inspection but now they will be able to go online, use their PIN from the building permit and make a request, for say, a foundation inspection.
“Then they’ll also be able to go on the site later on to see whether it passed inspection or failed. They’ll be able to read the inspection report, as well.”
A training session with building inspection employees will take place Friday, prior to the roll out of the system on Monday, Fraser said.
In the New Year he said he expects people will be able to apply for a building permit online.
Up until now that hasn’t been possible because the CBRM doesn’t currently accept credit cards as payment to open a building permit application.
“We’ve made the decision . . . allowing people to pay for building permits online using their credit cards. We’re just trying to work out that end of it right now, and we’re hoping to have that up and ready by the first of the year.”
Making the building permit process a less complicated affair was one of the pledges in Mayor Cecil Clarke’s reorganizational plan for the CBRM, which would eventually create the most business and development friendly municipality in Atlantic Canada.