Many business owners are expressing frustration over permit delays they say they are experiencing with the City of Edmonton.
In business, time is money and some entrepreneurs say they have paid tens of thousands of dollars in rent without being able to open their doors because their permits took months — or in some cases even upwards of a year — to be approved.
But the City of Edmonton maintains its permit process is one the best in Canada.
April Brown is still trying to open Rootbar Salon in Edmonton, eight months after she said she completed her initial application.
“The process has been about six+ months just to get a building permit going,” Brown said.
“We didn’t find out until Dec. 23 that we needed an architect to basically just stamp our drawings.
“The drawings didn’t change, we just had to pay an extra $2,000 to $3,000 for that stamp.”
After starting to build the salon, Brown was still waiting for approvals to get things done.
The salon owner says she’s now tens of thousands of dollars in debt from the business before even opening her doors.
Brown said she opened the same business in Calgary and it took her about a third of the time.
“I expressed my stress level, the concerns with the financial burden, and they (City of Edmonton) just kept saying, ‘This is our top priority. This is our top priority,'” she said.
“It was almost like gaslighting.”
The Bonnie Neighbourhood Pub opened just recently and its owner said he also struggled with city permits.
Dave Bowie, the owner of The Bonnie, said he endured lengthy waits for inspections and approvals.
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“To keep a place like this for an extra four months, like, rent is not cheap,” he said.
“I phoned the business office and they said, ‘It’s not done. We need to come and inspect your rooftop unit.’ And I said, ‘Well I thought that was already done. I see that it’s passed?’ They said, ‘No, you need to get the drainage on it passed.”
Bowie said he called the city’s plumbing department himself and was told he would have to wait six more weeks for a city employee to come out, but he persisted.
“(They) said, ‘I’ll come out in a couple days.’
“But this is after about a week of me phoning every day and saying, ‘Please, I’m running out of money here.'”
Bradlee Whidden, a policy analyst with the Alberta branch of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB), said he has heard similar complaints from business owners in Edmonton.
“We’ve heard from dozens of small businesses in Edmonton that this process can take months — (even) upward of a year to get a permit to start building,” he said.
The CFIB said some business owners are choosing St. Albert or Spruce Grove instead of Edmonton now, because permitting is easier there.
“This is a process that took a few weeks in the 90s, a month in the 2000s and now it’s taking months to even years to get that done,” Whidden said.
The city argues Edmonton is a success story when it comes to permit approvals.
A City of Edmonton official said the city is finding innovative ways to address permits and inspections.
“We’re a national leader — whether it’s using an automation or even artificial intelligence to look at some of those inspections that we do,” said Travis Pawlyk, the city’s branch managers of development services.
When Pawlyk was asked what he would say to businesses complaining about permit delays, he said “each applicant is different and there could be unique circumstances there.”
“And that’s where we have the support in place that if you do get stuck, do call us,” he added.
The City of Edmonton issued nearly 10,000 business licences in 2024. Its statistics show, on average, permitting and approvals happened 30 per cent faster than the year before, and an exit survey indicates 90 per cent of applicants were satisfied.
There are 70 inspectors on staff for once construction starts. Pawlyk acknowledged the city is recruiting more inspectors to keep up with demand but noted it takes six months to train them properly.
“It’s very difficult to hire these individuals — they’re highly trained,” he said. “Right now, the safety council demands that they’re either Red Sealed or journeyman,” Pawlyk said.
Mayor Amarjeet Sohi said he believes the construction boom in Edmonton has led to some permit delays and noted the City of Edmonton is being recognized nationally for reducing red tape.
“We are very quick on simple permits and applications,” he said. “Yes if there’s a complex project, it takes longer than a normal, simple project.”
Dale Nally, Alberta’s minister of red tape reduction, said he believes Edmonton needs to do more.
“We need to get rid of the excuses and we need to create a culture of red tape reduction within every municipality,” he said.
“I’ve used the example we need municipalities wanting to approve permits like they want their next breath of fresh air, because they’re job creators.”
Brown echoed Nally’s sentiment. She now has a building permit and hopes to open her salon in April but said even though this is the first business she is opening in Edmonton, it will also likely be the last.
“Based on this situation alone with the city, I would not recommend it,” Brown said.
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