N.S. municipal politicians weigh in on whether AI can speed up housing approvals

Municipal politicians in Nova Scotia are reacting after the federal government pitched artificial intelligence as a way of speeding up housing approvals.

The recent federal budget included $100 million to help communities adopt the AI technology, but many questions remain around how it will be implemented.

“AI, I think at the municipal level, it could be beneficial,” said Halifax District 5 Coun. Sam Austin.

“I think we also have to be cautious it doesn’t replace the human eye approval.”

The $100 million commitment would be spread over three years and be dedicated to helping municipalities adopt AI into their housing permitting processes. The initiative aims to reduce what can sometimes be a tedious workload.

Get daily National news

Get daily Canada news delivered to your inbox so you'll never miss the day's top stories.

Sign up for daily National newsletter Get Started

By providing your email address, you have read and agree to Global News' Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.

But Austin says a human touch will still be necessary.

“I wouldn’t want to go to an AI just automatically approving a permit and issuing it without without a human somewhere in there saying, ‘Yes, this is correct,'” he said.

Halifax Mayor Andy Fillmore says he’s interested in seeing how these digital supports will help.

In a statement, he says “this is about giving our professional staff better administrative tools to do their jobs more effectively and productively — not replacing their expertise and judgement on planning decisions.”

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities is spearheading the project. The federation’s president, Tim Tierney, says AI will help communities cut back on lengthy permitting delays.

“For some of the smaller ones that don’t have the ability to have giant workforces of permitters, this will allow the smallest municipalities to be able to have that ability to speed up their processing,” said Tierney, who is also a councillor in Ottawa.

The federal government points out Edmonton is already using automated reviews and that as a result, the city is now issuing one-day approvals.

The Nova Scotia Federation of Municipalities says the move could alleviate the burden on towns with limited resources but policies to govern the use of AI will be vital.

“You can’t skip steps. So we talk about efficiency, but efficiency doesn’t mean missing steps because we don’t want anyone to get hurt,” said David Mitchell, the federation’s president.

“So there’ll always be a human on the other end, whether it’s a building official and building inspector or a planner and engineer to make sure the work is done properly.”