Alberta announces online portal to report red tape, home-building delays
Alberta has introduced a new online portal that will allow developers, municipalities and other housing partners to report red tape and unnecessary home-building delays.
The province says the Stop Housing Delays online portal will help identify areas that are preventing "fast and efficient residential construction."
"The Stop Housing Delays portal will allow Alberta's government to hear directly from developers, municipalities and other partners on where delays are happening in the construction process," said Jason Nixon, minister of community and social services.
"This will help identify and remove barriers, ultimately getting homes built faster and continuing Alberta's record home-building pace."
Nixon says the government will collaborate with a wide range of ministries to find solutions, ranging from minor policy changes to major reforms.
Nixon made the announcement from Calgary's MacDougall Centre on Wednesday morning.
As he spoke, protesters from renters' advocacy group Acorn gathered in front of Municipal Affairs Minister Ric McIver's southeast Calgary constituency office demanding the province institute a rent cap.
"Rent control is the easiest thing that can be implemented, the quickest thing that can be implemented," said Acorn city centre chair Maggy Wlodarczyk.
"I hear a lot of politicians talking about building more, and that's great, but it takes time to build things, and rent control is something that can be put in place in the meantime while those places are being built."
McIver told the protesters that the province is working hard to keep up with growth, saying federal immigration policy is making the housing shortage worse.
"When the amount of immigration goes from a reasonable amount to two million people, that actually makes the issue that we're talking about here today worse instead of better," he said.
"Our government will continue to work to make this situation better."
McIvor says the online portal will help speed up construction and the building of new homes.
Scott Fash, CEO of BILD Alberta Association, says the red tape and delays typically add around 10 per cent to the cost of building a home.
"Sometimes it might go higher than that depending on the scale of the project," he said.
Fash believes any costs saved will be passed on to consumers.
"We have a hyper competitive Industry, our builders compete on a day-to-day basis with each other, and the way they do best from a business perspective is to be able to provide a product to the widest swath of the population possible."
On Wednesday, Nixon acknowledge the majority of building regulations slowing construction are under municipal control.
He says if cities don't react to the province's call for red tape reduction, they risk losing provincial financing.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Donald Trump picks former U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra as ambassador to Canada
U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has nominated former diplomat and U.S. congressman Pete Hoekstra to be the American ambassador to Canada.
Genetic evidence backs up COVID-19 origin theory that pandemic started in seafood market
A group of researchers say they have more evidence to suggest the COVID-19 pandemic started in a Chinese seafood market where it spread from infected animals to humans. The evidence is laid out in a recent study published in Cell, a scientific journal, nearly five years after the first known COVID-19 outbreak.
This is how much money you need to make to buy a house in Canada's largest cities
The average salary needed to buy a home keeps inching down in cities across Canada, according to the latest data.
'My two daughters were sleeping': London Ont. family in shock after their home riddled with gunfire
A London father and son they’re shocked and confused after their home was riddled with bullets while young children were sleeping inside.
Smuggler arrested with 300 tarantulas strapped to his body
Police in Peru have arrested a man caught trying to leave the country with 320 tarantulas, 110 centipedes and nine bullet ants strapped to his body.
Boissonnault out of cabinet to 'focus on clearing the allegations,' Trudeau announces
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has announced embattled minister Randy Boissonnault is out of cabinet.
Baby dies after being reported missing in midtown Toronto: police
A four-month-old baby is dead after what Toronto police are calling a “suspicious incident” at a Toronto Community Housing building in the city’s midtown area on Wednesday afternoon.
Sask. woman who refused to provide breath sample did not break the law, court finds
A Saskatchewan woman who refused to provide a breath sample after being stopped by police in Regina did not break the law – as the officer's request was deemed not lawful given the circumstances.
Parole board reverses decision and will allow families of Paul Bernardo's victims to attend upcoming parole hearing in person
The families of the victims of Paul Bernardo will be allowed to attend the serial killer’s upcoming parole hearing in person, the Parole Board of Canada (PBC) says.