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.
Both cities publish an application date and an issue date on every permit, so the comparison can be measured rather than argued.12
| Year | Vancouver | Calgary | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2021 | 89 days | 16 days | 5.6x |
| 2022 | 118 days | 20 days | 5.9x |
| 2023 | 101 days | 15 days | 6.7x |
| 2024 | 77 days | 23 days | 3.3x |
| 2025 | 77 days | 16 days | 4.8x |
| 2026 | 62 days | 24 days | 2.6x |
The direction of travel is the part most people have backwards. Vancouver has come down in every year since 2022. Calgary has drifted slower.
Controlling for what each city builds
The two feeds carry different work, so the raw medians are not comparing like with like. Vancouver's is 35% additions and 28% demolitions, with new construction only 385 of the 17,462 permits issued since 2023. Calgary's is 29% new construction.3
Banded by declared construction value, for permits issued 2023 onward, the gap survives at every size:
| Declared value | Vancouver | Calgary | Gap |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under $25,000 | 59 days | 15 days | 3.9x |
| $25,000 to $100,000 | 53 days | 17 days | 3.1x |
| $100,000 to $500,000 | 71 days | 21 days | 3.4x |
| $500,000 to $2M | 155 days | 49 days | 3.2x |
| Over $2M | 220 days | 104 days | 2.1x |
So the honest answer to a builder choosing between the two is that Calgary is still meaningfully faster for the same job, by three to four times, and least so on the largest projects.
The number that should change the decision
Calgary's advantage is being consumed by a queue. Its open application backlog went from 2,348 at the end of 2021 to 7,370 in July 2026, more than triple, while its median crept from 16 days to 24.2 Vancouver, over the same period, issued more permits than it received in every year since 2022, which is what a draining queue looks like.1
A city clearing more than it takes in, with a falling median, genuinely got faster. A city taking in more than it clears is in the condition that produced Vancouver's slow years. Anyone picking a market on a 15-day permit should be reading the backlog line rather than the median.
What this comparison cannot tell you
It is city-wide, so it is not a forecast for your project. It excludes permits issued the same day they were applied for and gaps of 2,000 days or more, both as data errors. And it covers only the two cities that publish enough to be measured; several Metro Vancouver municipalities do not.
One question per page. The first sentence is the answer. When a figure changes, the page changes and the verified date moves. All answers.