After getting approved last year to add a new building official, the City of Kamloops is still getting caught up on hiring.

Director of development services Marvin Kwiatkowski says it’s a hard position to find qualified staff for.

“We’re all competing against a very small pool with like municipalities, and they typically are paid the same or more and they have the same benefits where they are. We hopefully are going to fill that last position; we had an interview yesterday and things look promising.”

Kwiatkowski says as of Jan. 1, building officials are now working eight-hour days instead of seven hours, which he says has given the building department a boost.

“That was completed and signed off with CUPE… So that increases our staff time on the files. That’s one of the positives, we’re getting more hours per week in, a 14 per cent increase in the inspector’s time. And the other thing is it allows us to be more competitive with the salary. So if you put that over the year, it’s a substantial increase in the salary. We can help attract better applicants, and we are seeing that.”

Despite the staffing challenge, Kamloops city staff approved a record $288 million worth of building permits last year.