The City of Kamloops says processing times to approve building permits are down in the early-going this year.

Building and engineering development manager Jason Dixon says residential permits are taking about two weeks and commercial permits are taking four to five, which are both within the city’s targets.

“We fully expect a spring rush, and we often, when that happens, we kind of take a look at staffing. Last year we worked a few Saturdays, people would come in and work Saturdays just in an effort to get permits out the door and get things moving. If need be, we’ll do that, or look at doing again this year.”

The city is requesting that council approve another building official to be hired in this year’s budget which would further help permiting staff. That matter will be debated on next week.

Dixon says it’s not clear how soon someone would be in the job if all goes to plan.

“If it’s approved, we’ll probably start the posting and the advertising for it as quickly as we can, within a week or two ideally. The challenge will be just finding the right person. Building officials are a rare commodity in the province right now, all municipalities and regional district seem to be struggling to find qualified staff. So that’ll be the real challenge.”