Prince George City Councillor Brian Skakun didn’t pull any punches over his frustration on what he deems are serious issues within Development Services.
In a Facebook post, Skakun referenced a Freedom of Information Request from Councillor Trudy Klassen, which revealed major red flags including some developers being overcharged on permits.
Furthermore, Skakun told MyPGNow.com the city currently does not have a plumbing inspector and administration was unable to provide how many employees the department was short as well the amount of contractors hired from outside of PG.
“We can’t get enough people to work in development services and we are actually contracting out to firms from local businesses and also from outside the City of Prince George and it’s a real concern. We need to keep every job and every dollar we can here.”
“The developers wouldn’t necessarily know that they are being overcharged because if you build a certain sized building you are charged so much for square foot or metre and if you have a bunch of developments you might not know you are being charged by a hundred bucks or so.”
Skakun said he has received several responses from contractors and businesses related to the issue.
“After my post this week, I think I had four conversations with different developers about some of their concerns and I am also meeting a major player in the community to talk about their concerns.”
As for what needs to be done, Skakun stated the department’s short falls including the lack of a plumbing inspector needs to be put into the spotlight.
“We need to do an external audit or we need to do something to find out what has come of our short comings and fix things because we need every tax dollar and development we can get.”
Skakun added council receives reports on the number and value of permits issued but the elephant in the room is the amount of business lost due to delays an inefficiencies.
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