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Kelowna already has a good reputation of processing building and other permits in a hurry.

Ryan Smith, the city’s community planning department manager, is trying to speed that up to a matter of minutes rather than the few hours, days or weeks it now takes by using the artificial intelligence ChatGPT program.

“You will be able to ask: ‘What do I need for a building permit for a swimming pool?’ and it will, take you through that journey,” he told iNFOnews.ca “Eventually, it will link up to our new permit processing system that we’re implementing and it will allow you to apply online as well. So, technically, you could get advice on what you need to put together a permit for a swimming pool and apply online without having to come to City Hall at all.”

Last April, it took Kelowna a week to process a renovation permit and four to six weeks for building permits, Krista Paine vice-president of the Central Okanagan branch of the Canadian Home Builders’ Association at the time and owner of Ian Paine Construction, told iNFOnews.ca.

In contrast, she said, Lake Country takes six to eight weeks for a renovation permit.

READ MORE: A few reasons why new housing is so expensive in the Okanagan

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Smith believes Kelowna can do even better on the simpler applications.

The ChatGPT system, which is about two years in the making, should be up and running for staff to test and work out the bugs in the next few weeks. The target is for the first phase, the information bot, to be open to the public in August. By late next year or early in 2024 the goal is to have the yet-to-be-named bot processing and issuing the permits.

The ChatGPT technology is getting some pushback these days out of concerns it will be, or already is being misused. There are stories about fake news reports, academic papers and even music videos like a fake Drake-Weekend video that went viral last week.

The City of Kelowna’s version is very different, Smith said.

“We’ve got access to different ChatGPT than the general public would,” he said. “It’s using our data bases. That’s what it’s searching through. It takes some time to learn in order to get accurate so that’s what we’re working on behind the scenes. What information does it need to learn? How does it provide it back to the users and try to make sure it’s correct?”

Once it’s up and running, people will not only be able to find out what permits they need for things like swimming pools but they can also look at what uses are allowed on an individual property and what plans say it could be converted to in the future.

Which is a great benefit to the front line staff at City Hall.

This is an example of how the chatbot looks like.

Image Credit: Submitted/City of Kelowna

“We have very, very busy front line staff and we want to make sure that staff is providing that same information over and over and over again,” Smith said. “And, when our bylaws change, the information they provide changes too. The chatbot will be able to pick up those changes right away.”

The city is also looking at ways for building inspections to be done online as well, possibly by having builders submit videos of their work that can then be checked by the bot.

Lots of issues have to be worked out there in terms of things like verifying the accuracy of the materials submitted.

If that’s to happen it could be about three years before it’s online.

"Maybe there are places where we can’t change and we’ll find those places as well," he said.

Smith foresees challenges with attracting and retaining skilled planning and inspection staff in coming years so sees artificial intelligence as a key to keeping things ticking along at a good pace.

“The staff on the ground, they work so hard, whether it’s on the inspections or review of permits, to get them out the door,” Smith said. “They’re constantly pulled in different directions with front line customer service.

“If we can help them focus on those higher valued tasks – like getting housing reviewed and approved, when they don’t have to answer so many questions on the front counter and they don’t get constantly interrupted – if we can take even 30 to 50% of those questions away, it would be a big deal on our resources so they can provide better service to the construction community. We’d have better oversight of construction projects.”

Kelowna seems to be leading the way in Canada and, maybe, North America in its use of technology but others are starting to move in that direction.

“When we went to council with the grant application, almost two years ago, it didn’t really get much pick-up then,” Smith said. “I don’t think people understood the power of artificial intelligence to provide customer services.”

The provincial government came through with a grant of almost $430,000 to, mostly, look at this technology. But some of the money was designated to look into ways to improve the process of allowing four-plexes to be built on some single-family lots.

“I generated the initial idea and the vision after discussions with colleagues about: wouldn’t it be nice to do this and this and this,” Smith said. “What would save us resources and provide better services to the community and our customers? I’ve got an IT team here who are brilliant and who are figuring it all out.”

He's thrilled so see the program develop.

“This is the best part of my job, seeing things like this moving along. And the teams involved are so excited. It’s kind of fun because we know it will be something we’ll build on.

“The other exciting part of it is, we promised in our grant application that, after we launch and get it working, we’ll share it with other municipalities so it’s not something that we develop and we just hoard if for ourselves. If we can help other communities too, I think that is the peripheral benefit to this.”

That’s certainly something the province would embrace, given its current push to get local governments to speed up the approval process in order to get more housing built faster.

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