April proved to be another strong month for building activity in Kamloops with $37,268,000 worth of permits issued.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Building and Engineering Development Manager Jason Dixon says there is one major project that is helping drive those numbers.

“Patient Care Tower at Royal Inland Hospital. Giant project. Multiple permits for the construction of that. So you’ll notice in the stats we had one permit went out for that project in April. It was sort of the exterior cladding or envelope for the building was $11.9 million. And we’ve issued other permits for that project already this year.”

Dixon says that project skews things a little bit in terms of overall numbers but there is still a lot of activity.

“Look at some of the other sectors, 33 single-family dwellings so far this year versus 27 last year, 20 duplexes this year versus 17 last year.
So you look at the different sectors some are up, some are down a little bit. But, even if you take the hospital out, so far, off to a good start this year.”

Even though construction activity has continued throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, Dixon wouldn’t say the industry has felt some effects from it.

“Don’t think I’d say it’s unaffected. We’ve definitely seen a slowing in permit applications come in through April. A lot of these permits

When it comes to inspections, Dixon says the volume is down a little bit, but the fact that it is still issuing inspections every day means that people are out there working and earning a paycheque.