June 22nd, 2021
At issue was the determination by the Province’s Chief Building Official that the addition for farmers Leandra and Gerry Cameron was not subject to a building permit based on legislation which was further upheld by the RM’s own bylaw.
Agricultural buildings, including houses, are exempt from building standards legislation unless a municipality has a building bylaw requiring higher standards than required in legislation.
During the June 22nd meeting of Council, the Chief Administrative Officer Brandi Morisette said the RM was interpreting the legislation differently than the Ministry and recommended Council require and enforce the building permit. Councillor Garry Dixon made the motion which the Council unanimously approved.
During the meeting, Reeve Bob Schmidt said he was aware of other similar permits that had been required; however, after requesting the information formally from the RM, they said there had been none since January of 2019.
On Monday, the Camerons received an email from Morisette that said, “In the case of the addition of a sunroom to your dwelling, no building permit is required as previously communicated to you.” Morisette further said that the RM would be reviewing and amending their building bylaw.
On the RM’s reversal, the Camerons say they aren’t surprised that the RM can’t enforce a building permit against the legislation and the RM’s own building bylaw.
The RM is aware that Provincial legislation will be changing on January 1st, 2022, which will no longer exempt agricultural houses from building standards.
When contacted for comment on the reversal and review with possible amendments, Reeve Bob Schmidt said, “The building permit issue for a farm residence was actually due to a simple misunderstanding by the CAO. She recently met with the Chief building official and the applicant, and the matter has been resolved. The applicant was never charged any building permit fees.”
Reeve Schmidt also said, “The misunderstanding came about because our new Zoning Bylaw definition of farm buildings did include farm residences. However, with so few farm residences building or additions being applied for (zero since 2019), it hasn’t come up since our CAO was hired. The proposed solution she recommended to Council has since been found to be not workable.”
Schmidt also said the RM should not be taking any other action or changing the building bylaw because of the changes coming from the Provincial government.
The Camerons were asked if they met with the CAO and Chief Building Official to resolve the matter, and they said they had not. They said they only learned they would no longer need the building permit from the email from the CAO on Monday.
- Jenifer Argue, Local Journalism Initiative reporter
Note: These reports may be abridged for content
