Prediction: Victoria city council will not learn the hard way, not because the lesson won't be served, but because Victoria city councilors just refuse to listen and learn.
Lets do some math on this... 62 hours per application. With a 40 hour work week a city employee in the building department only completes 3-4 applications per month? Sure there are applications spanning many weeks, but that's a finish rate of less than 1 application per week. Who could keep a job with that level of efficiency?
Does anyone know how difficult this job is to do and how much they get paid to do it. I don't want to jump to an assumption of ineptitude, but the surface evidence looks like it.
On another note... yeaay for more fuel on the crash fire. Someone needs to start a banner campaign on the bear mountain overpass of all the bad news facing Victoria. The giant overpass left for dead hasn't been enough of a warning on its own.
Oops - Posted this in the old thread so reposting here.. --------
The mortgage brokers over at Canadian Mortgage trends have received word from CMHC that pre-approval letters are NOT valid after April 19th unless they use the new qualification rules.
Some buyers are going to be surprised when they find they can't get that stretched to the max loan they were counting on. Watch your PCS for collapsed offers after April 19.
Over on KIV they are having an interesting discussion about variable rate mortgages. The costs to switch to fixed and how payments are calculated is covered.
There are quite a few buyers in Victoria that are happy today with their variable rate mortgage. Ask them what happens when interest rates rise and they will counter back that they will just lock in.
If they are currently holding a 2.25% variable (bank prime) they will probably see rates jump in June.
What happens when they switch? Depends on the contract they probably didn't bother to read. Some will find they will be offered the posted rate which is now over 5%. Their dilemma - big jump in payments to go fixed or ride the variable rate up and up.
Inglishmagor - Most civil servants - including city employees are hard working and competent. Why bash them without any knowledge of what they actually need to do to process an application?
The tactic you are using is basically referring anger at the unknown 'government'. Investigate, be curious, find out where there are inefficiencies, suggest improvement. Then things will get faster - and better for everyone.
Animal are you suggesting I track down the building application process at city hall and run an audit on the system to assess points inefficiency?
Rather than hearing that civil servants are hard workers I was hoping to hear from someone who knows something about the process. I'll be the first to say I don't know what it takes to run an application. I'll also say 62 freak'n hours of processing man hours sounds ridiculous.
I know someone who was going through them for a heritage building and it was a complete joke. Lengthy and needless delays,using completely wrong/out of date blue prints to make incorrect assesments that took months to fix, key employees who always seemed to be on holiday or off on a Monday or Friday and on and on.
I went through them once for a simple permit for a woodstove upgrade and it turned into a gong show over a $25 piece of paper when I was doing everything by the book. I would not want to deal with this archaic beaurocratic BS ever again.
Inglishmagor - your comment said ' I don't want to jump to an assumption of ineptitude, but the surface evidence looks like it.'
Given Vic's subsequent comment ' Lengthy and needless delays,using completely wrong/out of date blue prints to make incorrect assesments that took months to fix, key employees who always seemed to be on holiday or off on a Monday or Friday and on and on.', one might want to focus on systemic issues rather than the people.
Yes, given what people are saying, an audit of the building application process at City Hall would probably be a good thing, though that would probably be the city's responsibility rather than yours.
6 comments:
Lets do some math on this... 62 hours per application. With a 40 hour work week a city employee in the building department only completes 3-4 applications per month? Sure there are applications spanning many weeks, but that's a finish rate of less than 1 application per week. Who could keep a job with that level of efficiency?
Does anyone know how difficult this job is to do and how much they get paid to do it. I don't want to jump to an assumption of ineptitude, but the surface evidence looks like it.
On another note... yeaay for more fuel on the crash fire. Someone needs to start a banner campaign on the bear mountain overpass of all the bad news facing Victoria. The giant overpass left for dead hasn't been enough of a warning on its own.
Oops - Posted this in the old thread so reposting here..
--------
The mortgage brokers over at Canadian Mortgage trends have received word from CMHC that pre-approval letters are NOT valid after April 19th unless they use the new qualification rules.
CMHC & Pre-approval - click here
Some buyers are going to be surprised when they find they can't get that stretched to the max loan they were counting on. Watch your PCS for collapsed offers after April 19.
Over on KIV they are having an interesting discussion about variable rate mortgages. The costs to switch to fixed and how payments are calculated is covered.
Mortgages on KIV - click here
There are quite a few buyers in Victoria that are happy today with their variable rate mortgage. Ask them what happens when interest rates rise and they will counter back that they will just lock in.
If they are currently holding a 2.25% variable (bank prime) they will probably see rates jump in June.
Bloomber News -click here
What happens when they switch? Depends on the contract they probably didn't bother to read. Some will find they will be offered the posted rate which is now over 5%. Their dilemma - big jump in payments to go fixed or ride the variable rate up and up.
Study your mortgage before you sign it
"You've got the right to lock in, but you are going to want to negotiate that rate and all the bank is obliged to do is give you the posted rate."
Inglishmagor - Most civil servants - including city employees are hard working and competent. Why bash them without any knowledge of what they actually need to do to process an application?
The tactic you are using is basically referring anger at the unknown 'government'. Investigate, be curious, find out where there are inefficiencies, suggest improvement. Then things will get faster - and better for everyone.
Animal are you suggesting I track down the building application process at city hall and run an audit on the system to assess points inefficiency?
Rather than hearing that civil servants are hard workers I was hoping to hear from someone who knows something about the process. I'll be the first to say I don't know what it takes to run an application. I'll also say 62 freak'n hours of processing man hours sounds ridiculous.
I know someone who was going through them for a heritage building and it was a complete joke. Lengthy and needless delays,using completely wrong/out of date blue prints to make incorrect assesments that took months to fix, key employees who always seemed to be on holiday or off on a Monday or Friday and on and on.
I went through them once for a simple permit for a woodstove upgrade and it turned into a gong show over a $25 piece of paper when I was doing everything by the book. I would not want to deal with this archaic beaurocratic BS ever again.
Inglishmagor - your comment said ' I don't want to jump to an assumption of ineptitude, but the surface evidence looks like it.'
Given Vic's subsequent comment '
Lengthy and needless delays,using completely wrong/out of date blue prints to make incorrect assesments that took months to fix, key employees who always seemed to be on holiday or off on a Monday or Friday and on and on.', one might want to focus on systemic issues rather than the people.
Yes, given what people are saying, an audit of the building application process at City Hall would probably be a good thing, though that would probably be the city's responsibility rather than yours.
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