City has ‘dire’ need for building inspectors
Golden Horseshoe area fighting for new recruits
St. Catharines building services racked up overtime but still couldn’t meet all of its demands last year, prompting city council to give the go-ahead Monday to hire two additional building inspectors.
But councillors heard finding qualified people may be a challenge in an industry where demand is currently exceeding supply.
Numerous building officials are reaching retirement age as the need for them is increasing, a trend the Ontario Building Association calls the Silver Tsunami.
“This is a huge problem in Ontario and it will only get worse,” said Jim Riddell, city director of planning and building services, who is retiring himself this year.
That means St. Catharines is competing to retain and hire staff.
A report to council said Hamilton offers a $10,000 to $15,000 higher wage range than St. Catharines.
The city has a vacancy it’s been trying to fill since August 2017 but has been unable to find a qualified candidate.
“For building inspectors, we’re competing with Oakville, Burlington, the Halton Region and Hamilton and certainly they offer significantly higher pay,” Riddell said.
The two new building inspector positions will be in addition to filling the existing vacancy.
The need comes as St. Catharines is enjoying a spike in construction activity.
In 2017, the number of building permits increased 14 per cent to 1,310 with an estimated value of construction of more than $195 million.
The building department shelled out more than $65,000 in overtime pay and contract positions in 2017 and more than $13,000 in training costs because of staff turnover.
Still, legislation requires the city to perform an inspection within 48 hours if requested and the report to council said the city had difficulty meeting those deadlines in the fall. That resulted in frustration by staff and complaints in the building industry.
“Through 2017 the situation has been very dire,” said Riddell, adding the department wants to be able to provide excellent customer service.
“There are a number of improvements that we’re working on, but staffing is one of the main ingredients to being able to ensure that we’re complying with all the requirements.”
It’s anticipated 2018 will be another active year for building services.
The city estimates it will hand out permits for construction worth more than $130 million, including the new police detachment, Walmart expansion at the Pen Centre and the retirement development at the former Ontario Street hospital site.
St. George’s Coun. Sal Sorrento made the motion to fund the new building inspectors, rather than refer the issue to the budget standing committee for future consideration.
“There is a very crucial need right now,” Sorrento said. “It’s very real. It’s very palpable and it is immediate.”
St. Patrick’s Coun. Mat Siscoe, chair of the budget committee, said he wasn’t happy about circumventing the process but believed there is need in the planning department for additional staff.
“We’ve tasked them with a number of very big projects over the last several years and I think they’ve done an exemplary job bringing those things forward, but at the same time delays have been noted,” he said. “Staff themselves have noted delays have been because of a lack of staff.”
In addition to the regular workload, the building services department is getting ready to take on some responsibilities from fire services.
Acting fire Chief Jeff McCormick said the building department will be responsible for inspections that fall under the building code act, freeing up the fire department to concentrate on the routine inspections it should be doing and are not doing, such as industrial occupancy, downtown and retrofit inspections.