The City of Kenora wants the province to approve the qualifications for out-of-province building inspectors and planners faster.

Director of Human Resources Roberta Marsh says there’s already a process in place, but it seems to to be stalled.

“There is a process that reviews their experience, their education and their certifications,” Marsh told council recently at their Committee of the Whole meeting.

“So this process we have read about, learned about, talked about with these groups.  Unfortunately a significant stall in actually activating it.”

Marsh says as a result, many of the smaller municipalities in Ontario are being drained of those specialists, and those jobs are now going vacant.

“With the push provincially around building more homes faster, large municipalities are starting to hire significant amounts of building inspectors, planners, a whole bunch of other related experts in those fields.”

Marsh is asking city council to lobby the provincial government on this issue at the upcoming Rural Ontario Municipalities Association conference in January.

(File photo)