Town to introduce comprehensive online processes to support economic recovery

In an effort to support local economic recovery and meet the needs of residents whose home improvement projects have been held up by the pandemic, the Town of Oakville is introducing comprehensive online processes to allow building and development projects to advance during the COVID-19 pandemic, while protecting the health and safety of residents and employees. The town’s intention in resuming these services online is to give all who need approvals the chance to advance essential projects and prepare non-essential work for when the Ontario government lifts essential business restrictions.

Starting Monday, May 4, 2020, planning, building, engineering, and development applications and permits can be submitted electronically. This includes plans of subdivision, rezoning and site plans, among others. In addition, most residential building permits can also be submitted electronically. Moving forward, all will be eligible for electronic submissions.

Larger Industrial Commercial and Institutional (ICI) application submissions will continue by appointment only. A new page on the town’s website will provide further information and instructions on how to navigate all the new online intake processes.

“While emergency measures are still in place, and town facilities remain closed, Council and staff are constantly striving to offer services in alternative ways to help businesses, and our community, move forward,” said Mayor Rob Burton. “By providing comprehensive online services we are effectively serving our economy by allowing many projects to be ready to proceed when the pandemic has settled and we can return to business as usual.”

The town is now entering Phase 3 of our COVID-19 response plan which means staff are planning for recovery by looking at alternate and safe ways to bring back services. The emergency measures put in place by the province, the region and the town to slow the spread of COVID-19 are still in place, but the town is taking measures now to support the community in recovery. As such staff will be reviewing and processing all applications using new digital tools while working remotely and using video teleconferencing software.

Staff reviewed Oakville's new processes, which have been under development for a year, with the Mayor’s new Community Development Task Force to gather feedback regarding these new online processes. The processes were referenced in the Economic Action Plan developed by the Oakville Economic Task Force which aims to help address the COVID-19 impact to businesses.  Recently, the Economic Task Force invited local businesses to participate in a short online survey to help inform town priorities and initiatives in support of Oakville’s economic recovery.

In addition, to help with overall recovery plans, Mayor Burton along with Burlington Mayor Marianne Meed Ward, Halton Hills Mayor Rick Bonnette, Milton Mayor Gord Krantz formed the Halton Mayors Recovery Coordination Group.

For more information on the town’s efforts to support the community in response to COVID-19, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.