Straight answers.
33 answers · Verified facts for people who build in BC & Alberta
All answers
One question per page. The first sentence is the answer, with the figure in it. Every page shows the date its sources were last checked and links the primary source. When a figure changes, the page changes and the verified date moves. The long-form analysis behind most of these lives in The Brief.
Permits & Approvals
- Does the City of Surrey publish building permit approval times? Yes, as a rolling average: Surrey's permitting timelines page reported 5.7 weeks for a new single-family or duplex building permit and 3.3 weeks for a residential addition or renovation as of September 14, 2026, but its open data carries no application date, so those figures cannot be independently checked.
- How long does a building permit take in Calgary? The City of Calgary issued its median building permit 24 days after application in 2026, the high point of a pattern that has alternated year to year since 2021 (23 in 2024, 16 in 2025); residential improvement projects took 21 days and commercial or multi-family projects 41.
- How long does a building permit take in Vancouver? The City of Vancouver issued its median building permit 62 days after application in 2026, down from 118 days in 2022; by the City's own type of work, additions and alterations took a median 32 days and new buildings 168.
- Is it faster to get a building permit in Calgary or Vancouver? Calgary, but by less than it used to be. Calgary's median building permit took 24 days in 2026 against Vancouver's 62, a gap of 2.6 times, down from 6.7 times in 2023. Banded by declared construction value, Vancouver still takes 3 to 4 times as long for the same size of job.
- Which Metro Vancouver city takes the longest to issue a building permit? Of the municipalities that publish both an application and an issue date, the City of North Vancouver: its median permit took 112 days in 2026 against Vancouver's 62, slower in every year we can measure. Surrey, New Westminster and Delta publish no application date in their open data, so they cannot be ranked.
Regulatory
- Can the BC government force a municipality to issue a building permit? Yes. Section 11(1)(b) of the Housing Supply Act lets the minister direct a municipality to issue or refuse to issue a permit, subject to 3 conditions in section 11(2). The power exists, and no directive applying it to an individual permit has been publicly reported.
- Does rebuilding a house on the same footprint in BC require an archaeological assessment? Today it can, because the Heritage Conservation Act protects archaeological sites whether or not they are recorded; the Province's March 2026 policy paper proposes that a same-footprint rebuild would need no archaeological assessment at all, with legislative amendments anticipated in fall 2026.
- How much is Vancouver forgoing to Amenity Cost Charge in-stream protection? $370 to $380 million, against a $480 million Amenity Cost Charge capital programme for 2027 to 2036. The City priced the concession into its own forecast, and designed it to run about 5 years by pre-approving rate increases to 2029 so the by-law need not be amended until 2030.
- How much will Vancouver's Amenity Cost Charge rise in 2027? For residential above 1.5 floor space ratio, from $53.82 to $110.87 per square metre on September 30, 2027. That is a 106% step rather than the 3% inflationary adjustment every other category gets, because Council phased that one rate in at half price for its first year.
- What changes are proposed to BC's Heritage Conservation Act? Three permit types would collapse into one project-based permit, a public registry of qualified archaeologists would be created, and a same-footprint rebuild would need no archaeological assessment. Five earlier proposals have been dropped. All of it is subject to final decision by the Province.
- What counts toward a BC housing target? Net new units, calculated as completions, meaning occupancy permits issued, minus demolitions. Legalizing an existing unpermitted secondary suite does not count. Port Coquitlam's Year 1 report shows the arithmetic: 221 completions minus 30 demolitions is 191 net new units against a 343-unit target.
- What does "satisfactory progress" mean under BC's Housing Supply Act? It is not defined. The phrase appears 4 times in the Housing Supply Act, in sections 5(b), 6(1)(b), 11(2)(b) and 12(2)(b), and the Act attaches no percentage, no test and no regulation-making power to it, so what counts as satisfactory progress is a ministerial judgment.
- What must BC publish about housing target enforcement? Two things. Section 15 of the Housing Supply Act requires the minister to publish every housing target order, directive and order in council on a government site, and section 16 requires an annual report describing all actions taken under Part 4, published by September 30 in the following fiscal year.
- When are BC housing target progress reports due? Within 45 days of the end of each reporting period. For the Group 3 municipalities that is September 14, 2026 for Year 2, covering August 1, 2025 to July 31, 2026, and the report must be received by council resolution at a public meeting before it goes to the minister.
Renovation Permits
- Can I add a legal secondary suite in my basement in Vancouver? In many cases, yes, subject to zoning: the City of Vancouver allows 1 secondary suite per single-family home, requires a permit to add or legalize one, and treats a suite as a legal dwelling unit only once it has been approved through permitting and has passed final inspection.
- Do I need a building permit to finish a basement in Vancouver? Yes, in almost every case: the City of Vancouver requires a permit for renovations that move interior walls or existing plumbing, electrical or gas lines, for structural repairs and for adding a secondary suite, and its penalty for starting without one is typically 2 times the permit fee.
- Do I need a building permit to renovate a bathroom in Surrey, BC? Usually, yes: the City of Surrey requires a building permit for interior renovation work in a house, with plumbing and electrical permits after it, and fines unpermitted work $400 to $50,000 per offence. Its plumbing permit page exempts fixture replacement; its Plumbing By-law does not.
- Do I need a permit to renovate a bathroom in Vancouver? Usually, yes. The City of Vancouver requires a permit to move walls or existing plumbing, electrical or gas lines, but not to replace fixtures in the same place. It reports 92% of simple renovation permits issued within 3 days, and starting without a required permit typically costs double the fee.
- Do I need a plumbing permit to replace a toilet in Metro Vancouver? Not in Vancouver, Coquitlam or the District of North Vancouver, whose by-laws exempt replacing a toilet (Vancouver and the District only where no piping changes). Surrey's permit page exempts it too, but Surrey's Plumbing By-law No. 6569 does not.
- Do I need a plumbing permit to replace a toilet in the District of North Vancouver? No, if the new toilet goes in the same place. Section 3.3.7 of the District's Construction Bylaw 8271 excludes replacing a toilet, tub, shower, basin or sink when no valves, pipes or fixtures are rearranged, although the District's plumbing permit page lists only stoppages and leaks as exempt.
- Do you have to live on the property to have a secondary suite in Metro Vancouver? Only in the City of Langley, of the four municipalities checked. Its Zoning Bylaw 2025 No. 3300 requires the registered owner to live on the lot and caps a suite at 100 m². Burnaby's zoning has no such condition, though it requires a business licence if you rent without living there.
Wildfire Recovery
- How long does it take to rebuild a house after a wildfire in BC? Three to five years, on the record so far: five years after the 2021 Lytton fire only 20 homes had been rebuilt and occupied, and 21 months after the 2023 McDougall Creek fire West Kelowna had received 44 applications to rebuild a home out of 191 destroyed.
- How much does an archaeological assessment cost to rebuild a home after a wildfire in BC? In Lytton, ten homeowners rebuilding after the 2021 fire were quoted between $26,000 and $46,000 for the archaeological assessment their building permit required, and one homeowner was quoted $82,000 and cancelled the permit rather than pay it.
Arizona ADU Rules
- Can an HOA ban an ADU in Arizona? Arizona's ADU laws do not override private covenants: both say they do not prohibit restrictive covenants on ADUs made between private parties, so HOA deed restrictions can still limit them, although a city or county cannot make a covenant a condition of an ADU permit.
- Can you rent out an ADU in Arizona? Yes: where Arizona's ADU laws apply, the city or county cannot prohibit renting or advertising the house or the ADU separately as long-term rental housing, meaning a lease of 90 days or longer or month-to-month.
- Do you need extra parking for an ADU in Arizona? No: Arizona cities and towns of more than 75,000 people, and counties, cannot require a lot to have additional parking for an ADU, or charge a fee instead of parking.
- Does Arizona's ADU law apply where I live? Arizona's ADU rules cover cities and towns of more than 75,000 people under one statute and unincorporated county land under another, so a smaller city or town is bound by neither, and neither applies on tribal land or in the airport areas they exclude.
- How big can an ADU be in Arizona? Arizona law requires cities and towns of more than 75,000 people, and counties, to allow an ADU of 75% of the main house's interior habitable area or 1,000 sq ft, whichever is less, and the county statute says outright that larger units may be allowed.
- How many ADUs can you build on a lot in Arizona? Arizona cities and towns of more than 75,000 people, and counties, must allow at least one attached and one detached ADU wherever a single-family home is allowed, plus a second detached ADU on lots of an acre or more, with an affordable-rent condition that differs between the two laws.
- What setbacks apply to an ADU in Arizona? Where Arizona's ADU laws apply, a city or county cannot require an ADU to sit more than 5 feet from the side or rear property line, or set stricter height, setback, lot-size, coverage or frontage rules than it sets for single-family homes in the same zone.