The City of Edmonton said opening businesses is hard, but getting business licences should be easy. With the City of Edmonton’s new streamlined process, it said getting a business licence has become easier and faster. “When you’re opening a business, time is money, so we’re pleased to introduce more streamlined processes and help owners open their doors faster,” said City of Edmonton Branch Manager, Development Services Travis Pawlyk in a Wednesday press release. “We’re continuously working hard to streamline and simplify our processes for a better customer experience with the City’s permitting and licensing system.” The City of Edmonton said business licence applicants can now tie their development and building permits to their applications so Development Services staff can process the licences faster. It added connecting these applications avoids delays for business owners and reduces processing times by up to 30%. This service improvement is the latest effort to streamline processes and reduce red tape at it. Since 2018, it estimated red tape reduction efforts have saved $5.3 million and 67,600 days annually. The City of Edmonton’s Permits and Licensing Initiative was the winner in the Red Tape Reduction category at the Municipal Excellence Awards hosted by the Alberta government in 2022. Additionally, the Canadian Home Builders’ Association Municipal Benchmarking Study published in 2022 found Edmonton ranked at the top of 21 Canadian municipalities in the residential permit processing. The City of Edmonton said on September 12 it had become the first Canadian municipality to bring in Auto Review for House Development Permits — a digital tool allowing applicants to apply for them and start building on the same day.READ MORE: Edmonton becomes first Canadian city to introduce automated development approvalsIt said this new process improvement leverages automation to help builders get shovels in the ground faster, speeding up development to meet Edmonton's growing demand for housing. “Innovation is part of our ongoing commitment to service improvement and how Edmonton has become a national leader in streamlining and speeding up development,” said Pawlyk.
