How AI can answer the call for faster permitting

Building organizations continue to call on governments to speed up homebuilding across the country, starting at the top of the governmental chain.

“The Government of Canada must strengthen its ability to address the housing crisis and speed up innovation in residential construction. Too many Canadians are having a hard time finding housing that they can afford,” Bienvenu-Olivier Ntumba, the Liberal MP for Mont-Saint-Bruno—L’Acadie, PQ Parliament on June 6, 2025.

Delays often start with the building permit process. For example, in Québec, it is processing time increased by 135 per cent between 2017 and 2024 in Laval, Québec City and Montréal.

The approval process is a national problem. The World Bank Canada’s building permit process 64th in the world among 187 countries. In terms of site plan approvals, Canada sits in the bottom 20th percentile.

Although many municipal building departments blame a lack of plan examiners and building inspectors to handle the volume of applications, the increased complexity of the permitting process itself is cited by many observers.

The use of AI could be a way to resolve at least part of the bottleneck.

Three Ontario municipalities are exploring or adopting AI to modernize planning, building permit and development review processes. This is evidence of a growing interest among municipalities in using AI to reduce delays, improve customer service, support housing and reach development goals by making internal workflows more efficient.

JOHN BLEASBY/CONSTRUCTCONNECT — AI is beginning to help leading municipalities deal more efficiently with the volume and complexity of site approval and building permit applications.

This past April, the City of Burlington eCheck, a free online AI-powered tool designed to help applicants review development plans before formally submitting them for planning approvals or building permits. The tool allows users to compare plans against Burlington’s zoning regulations and parts of the Ontario Building Code. Its main purpose is to identify potential problems early so applicants can correct issues and submit more complete applications.

Mayor Marianne Meed Ward heralds eCheck as a major innovation, saying Burlington is the first municipality to deploy AI to support building code assessment.

“This is a significant milestone in modernizing the development review process in Ontario.”

In its initial testing phase, eCheck can be used to search property addresses, view applicable zoning rules and upload drawings for single detached dwellings as well as commercial and industrial buildings.

It can assess factors such as ceiling heights, room sizes, fire protection, setbacks, building height, floor area ratios, landscaping and parking. The tool then produces a clear pass/fail report showing where plans meet requirements and where changes may be needed.

In the nearby Town of Caledon, council a motion in late April directing staff to investigate possible uses of AI tools. Although it has not yet implemented a specific AI planning tool, Caledon is currently examining whether such technologies could help improve municipal services.

Caledon is particularly interested in AI due to the town’s mission to accelerate growth and development. More specifically, it signed a housing pledge with the Province of Ontario to support faster housing approvals.

Town staff has begun to investigate AI-powered search technology as part of a website improvement project, and the approved motion links this work to Caledon’s 2023–2035 strategic plan goal of modernization and innovation.

At the same time, councillors are stressing the need for transparency and understanding before implementation. Staff will examine tools such as AI-assisted planning review systems, automated customer service platforms and AI-supported document analysis. If these tools are found useful, staff may be authorized to implement them.

The City of Hamilton is actively using AI tools to improve initial reviews of building permit applications for single-detached and townhouse projects. The city’s tools conduct basic zoning reviews by comparing application information such as setback measurements against municipal zoning rules. Hamilton says this has reduced permit processing times by 60 per cent, allowing faster approvals or denial notices.

Mayor Andrea Horwath the initiative grew from a cross-departmental effort launched in 2023.

“The goal was clear,” she said. “Fix the inefficiencies in our planning systems, streamline the development application process and improve the customer experience for all applicants.”

AI tools can automate repetitive tasks such as data entry, which can free staff to focus on more complex issues and approve more permits. However, some municipalities and industry advocates a major cause of delays are poor-quality, incomplete applications from developers which often lack structural or energy documentation.

While there is an increased use of AI by the more advanced building developers to assist in generating permit applications and project narratives, human oversight is critical.

“Developers using AI to help them write proposals is great, but it isn’t always a good thing if they are not reviewing properly,” Sabrina Dugan, co-founder of Swiftbuild.ai, Propmodo. “You have to review absolutely everything before you submit to the county.”

Dugan explained an AI-generated narrative that contains an error or misrepresents a project detail doesn’t just delay the application; it damages the relationship between the applicant and the reviewing agency. In a process that runs on trust and communication, that relationship matters.

At the end of the day, while AI can help streamline permitting and pave the road towards overall improvement for Canada, it will remain a step-by-step process as individual municipalities and developers get onboard.

John Bleasby is a freelance writer. Send comments and Inside Innovation column ideas to editor@dailycommercialnews.com.