Speeding up permit timelines, bringing Transit Plus in house will cost millions: City of Winnipeg reports

The City of Winnipeg permit department says it needs millions of dollars to hire dozens of new employees to meet timelines set by the provincial government.

A report on the agenda of the city's property committee recommends hiring 77 permanent full-time staff members, at a cost of $6.5 million per year.

The report also suggests requiring the city to reinvest all fees collected from permits and inspections to increase staff and reduce timeframes, rather than diverting excess funds to general revenue.

Darryl Harrison, director of stakeholder engagement for the Winnipeg Construction Association which represents industrial, commercial and institutional builders in the citysays there are often delays in getting development and building permits concluded through the city.

"These delays significantly impact developments and the businesses that are driving those developments," Harrison said.

Those delays create costs for the businesses, whether they be restaurants, retail stores or other commercial enterprises, he said.

The association also supports the report's recommendation that all fees collected through the permit process be reinvested into the service.

The report notes that in the city's 2018 budget, fees for approvals, permits and inspections brought in $29 million, while operating expenses were under $20 million, "allowing the city to make a 'profit'" of roughly $10 million on fees "without reinvesting such fees into service improvements."

The provincial governmentmade changes through recent legislationto performance standards for municipal permit departments, aimed at speeding up timelines for permit approvals and imposing financial penalties if staff fail to meet them.

Mayor Scott Gillingham says he may push to delay a vote on hiring extra staff until later this year. He wants to give incoming planning, property and development director Hazel Borys time to review staffing levels and performance.

"The new director needs the opportunity to assess the situation, to determine the service level, needs to find out whether or not there's some other way to to meet the service demands rather than adding 77 staff is what they're calling for. That's that's a significant investment," Gillingham said duringa news conference on Thursday.

Borys is set to start in her position on July 31, which would mean a vote on the extra staff would not happen until council returnsfor its fall session.

Millions to take on Transit Plus: report

A city plan to have city staff provide part of the Transit Plus service could cost millions of dollars more and require dozens of additional staff, a city report says.

The report, which was on the agenda for the city's public works committee, outlines a proposal to deliver 22 per cent of the accessible transit service in-house, rather than the current model, which is entirely provided by contractors.

The new model would require the city to hire 56 new permanent full-time staff and three temporary positions. It also recommends pushing back the timeline for implementation by two years, to the end of 2026.

City council had ordered staff to look at bringing part of the service under the city's direct control by 2024.

Peter Tonge, an advocate for people with disabilities who uses a wheelchair, says the current model does not provide good service for users.

"The types of vehicles are inconsistent, the abilities of the drivers are inconsistent, there's lots of turnover, because it's really seen as in temporary job to do until you can find something better," he said in an interview Thursday.

Having Winnipeg Transit staff providing the service would mean drivers have better working conditions, and users would get more consistent service, he said.

The report estimates the new model would cost an additional $100,658 in 2024, $3,187,728 in 2025, $4,540,542 in 2026 and $1,247,382 in 2027.

The city would also need to spend $12.78 million to buy and store the vehicles to provide the service $3.53 million more than it had budgeted.

Mayor Gillingham says he did not support the proposal to bring Transit Plus in-house when he was a councillor because he was worried about the cost.

"This report in fact bears out that there would be a substantial increase in cost to do that," he said.

Any "deficiencies" in service could be resolved through the contracts the city signs with its contractors, Gillingham said.

The city currently has more than a dozen contracts with various providers, and Gillingham suggested the city could reduce that number in order to provide more consistent service.

Bring staff back to office, Wyatt says

One Winnipeg councillor wants the city to end its practice of allowing some staff to work from home.

The practice started as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but has now become common practice for many employers.

Transcona Coun. Russ Wyatt brought forward a motion at Thursday's council meeting, calling on the city to order all employees to return to their offices.

"We are in a transition time with generational change, in terms of new employees coming on," Wyatt told reporters Thursday.

"The ability to train, not just in terms of management, but to mentor from peers, older peers who are on the job all of that is lost when you don't work in a common work environment."

Wyatt's motion states "the city owns, leases and operates tens of thousands of office square feet that are presently sitting vacant."

Chief administrative officer Michael Jack told reporters the city faces a competitive labour market, and flexible work conditions are important to attracting and retaining employees.

"There's a lot of literature and studies out there that would suggest [working from home], in fact, can increase productivity in the right circumstances," Jack said.

He also said the number of staff working from home is not as high as Wyatt's motion suggests. A report on the exact number will be presented to council in the fall.

Watt's motion will be considered by executive policy committee at its meeting next month.