The Thompson-Nicola Regional District says it’s in the process of hiring two new building officials.

Chief building inspector Pat Luscombe says the TNRD is dealing with a bit of a backlog of building permit applications.

“We try to run about a three-to-five week waiting period, or processing period, for permits. Right now we are at the upper stretch of that. We are anticipating on adding some staff in order to try and achieve those goals for processing times.”

Luscombe says one job opening is to fill a vacancy and the other is a newly-added position.

More than $82 million worth of building permits in TNRD were issued in 2018, and staff are expecting a modest increase in construction this year.

Those permits include residential, commercial, industrial, institutional and “other” construction. Luscombe says apart from standard growth within the regional district, there are property owners who are rebuilding still from the Elephant Hill wildfire nearly two years ago.

“We actually have a program for the wildfire reconstruction. There’s no-cost permits for a period of two years, as long as they come in to make an application for a reconstruction permit within a two-year time period, from the date of the state of local emergency that occurred in 2017.”