As everyone is no doubt aware by now, construction permit fees at the city have gone up as of the first of the year. For single-family builders in particular, the increase may seem onerous – and indeed, it has gone up 38 per cent. While this is a hard pill to swallow, particularly because single-family starts are predicted to be down more than 12 per cent last year compared to 2011, we would like to take this opportunity to provide you with some background. Single-family construction permits have remained unchanged for several years while multi-family permits and renovation permits have been raised several times, so the city decided to harmonize the rates. A five per cent increase was also applied as a cost increase factor – a rate based on inflation and one that is sound business practice for the city. That means that in 2012, the harmonized rate was $8.30 per $1,000 of construction value plus five per cent – $8.72 across the board. But that means that multi-family and renovation permits only had a five per cent increase while single-family permits have a one-time hit of 38 per cent. Multi-family permits, in addition, had a $0.75 per $1,000 construction value increase this year to support current site safety service levels. Single-family permits will also have this safety surcharge applied in 2013. The 2012-2014 fee schedule changes incorporate the annual cost increase factor supported by council - the Municipal Pricing Index (MPI) plus population growth, which is forecast as follows: 2012 – five per cent; 2013, 5.1 per cent; and  2014, 5.5 per cent. The fees are set for the next three years but can be adjusted upwards depending on market conditions. We believe the reasoning by the city was sound. We are not currently out of line with other major centres but that said, we want to make sure we remain competitive. So keeping fees in line and not leading the pack is critical to our ongoing success in attracting new investment and growth.