The City of Pickering has retained Watson & Associates to undertake an update to the 2017/2018 full cost assessment to inform updated fee recommendations for planning and building permit applications.

The purpose of the update is to reflect increases in complexity in the planning application review processes, and increases in costs associated with administering and enforcing the Ontario Building Code.  It is anticipated that the recommendations from the current update will be completed for Council's consideration as part of the City's annual budget process.  Should there be any recommended changes in fees resulting from this completed assessment, staff would anticipate recommending phasing such fees with an effective date of July 1, 2022.  

To help recover the City's immediate costs for reviewing and processing applications, as an interim measure, staff are recommending to Council that building permit and planning application fees be increased by 5% and 10%, respectively, effective January 4, 2022.  This report will be considered at the December 13th Council meeting.  According to staff, these fee increases are within the established full cost of service, and maintains the City's overall competitive position as compared to other municipalities within Durham Region and the GTA.

For the past several years, the City of Pickering has annually increased building permit fees by about 3% to reflect annual inflation costs.  More recently, the City has been experiencing significant growth, particularly in the City Centre and Seaton, as well as a number of subdivisions throughout the municipality.  Staff have noted that this growth, coupled with evolving market conditions, has led to applications with increased complexity.  This has prompted an increase in staff time and resources to process building permit applications and to administer the requirements of the OBC.

Additionally, the pandemic created financial and operational challenges for the City, and in order to adapt, the City looked at new ways of conducting business.  One positive outcome was a shift to paperless building permit applications.  In 2020, the City's Building Services Section launched a digital submission application process for all building permits, and similarly, the Planning & Design Division has also transitioned to electronic submission of applications and supporting material.

Staff have indicated that while there has been no slowdown in development activity, a review of the City's year end application revenue intake has identified that they are not recovering their costs, despite their annual fee indexing.

If you have any comments or concerns, please contact Stacey Hawkins.