The City of Estevan has been dealing with some of the unfinished projects for quite some time now. To give them some teeth, a bylaw amendment was introduced last month and received its third reading on January 16. 

The amendment introduces a deposit of 5% up to $5,000 upfront alongside the purchase building permit, which would be returned after it has been checked by the building inspector. However, Councillor Travis Frank proposed another way to get a better grip on the situation. 

"What the city is proposing is that we would like to put in some kind of a process to get back on builders who are starting construction on projects, but never finishing them, taking too long or not following proper building practices that we created."

As outlined by Councillor Frank, this does cause a lot of grief, which in turn costs them money. 

"Where I'm concerned is I don't want to see us hinder people from wanting to build and I don't want us to have people not get permits because they don't want to put that money up front or hurt their own capital."

"Does the deposit help us or hurt us?"

"My proposal to the City Council is that we consider it to be a fine. That way, we can still allow people to build without having to give up a lot of their capital from the get-go. If we have these problems, we can still go after them," introduced Frank. 

Mayor Roy Ludwig said that if it was going to be a fine, then it will be attached to the tax paid by the builder. 

Councilor Frank explained that if there is a threat of a fine, then it will hold people accountable. It will be checked by the building inspector frequently to assure that the builder is following the Building Code and will finish the project within an acceptable amount of time. He said that the fine will cover the cost of the inspector, as well as other costs. 

"Hopefully, we'll see some elimination of those problems by having some sort of threat to the builders, saying 'You need to finish that'."

At the moment, City Manager Jeff Ward is looking into whether that is something that the City of Estevan can do. The matter will be brought up again in the next council meeting. 

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