Alberta introduces online tool aimed at speeding up home construction, cutting red tape

Alberta has launched a new online portal aimed at reducing housing construction delays, but some say the province needs to take more immediate action if they really want to fix the housing crisis.

The new Stop Housing Delays portal gives developers and local governments a space to report red tape and what they perceive as unnecessary building delays.

Scot Fash, CEO of BILD Alberta, says the tool will help address issues related to the permit process and building code interpretations, which can add months to the process.

“Often you’ll have, within the same municipality, one safety code officer interpret the same line of building code differently from another one,” he says. “And it has significant impacts on cost designs and approvals.”

He says these slowdowns are causing home prices to go up by around 10 per cent in many cases.

“Really a process that should be a month, is now extending to six months to eight months,” says Fash.

Calgary’s soaring home prices, largely due to limited supply, has caused many renters in the city to give up on their dreams of home ownership.

A recent survey from Habitat for Humanity saw 84 per cent of Canadian respondents say home ownership has become a luxury and 88 per cent who rent say they’ll never own a home.

Even with the existing issues, officials in Calgary say the city’s increasing housing supply is already impacting the average rental price, which fell by 4.7 per cent annually last month.

ACORN Canada is still demanding the government do more to address rent costs. The organization’s northwest Calgary chapter held a rally for a rent cap on Wednesday morning.

William Gillies is the ACORN secretary for NW Calgary and says the situation has gotten out of control. He says even with the new provincial portal, a cap is sorely needed.

“Certainly the last number of years it’s been an issue,” he says. “People are getting 20, 30 and 50 per cent rent increases.”

“I’ve spoken to senior citizens who are paying 80 per cent of their fixed income to rent.”

The provincial government says Alberta saw more than 9,900 apartment unit starts in the first half of 2024, which they say is the highest in an half year in the province’s history.

Alberta also saw more than 33,500 housing starts from January through to September of this year — up 35 per cent from the same period in 2023.