A building permit in BC comes from your city or district, or from your regional district if you live in a rural electoral area. Pick your region to find the right office, its official portal and our detailed city guides.
The Province writes the BC Building Code, but it does not issue building permits. Local governments do. BC has 161 municipalities and 27 regional districts. Every regional district is split into electoral areas, which are mostly rural. If your address is inside a municipality, its building department handles your permit. If it is in an electoral area, the regional district usually does. A few places have their own arrangements, such as the City of Vancouver’s own building by-law, or First Nations that run building inspection on their lands.
Three quick checks before you call anyone:
Victoria, Saanich, Langford, Duncan, Nanaimo and Courtenay, plus the CRD, CVRD, RDN and Comox Valley RD electoral areas.
Vancouver to Chilliwack and Squamish, plus Metro Vancouver Electoral Area A, the FVRD and the SLRD.
Kelowna and Kamloops, plus the Central Okanagan and Thompson-Nicola regional districts.
Prince George and the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George, with fees and expiry rules.
The people who build to these permits train under one province-wide system run by SkilledTradesBC. Start with the BC trades seat finder for college intakes, then the Red Seal guide, how to register an apprenticeship, challenging the Red Seal, exam readiness checklist, BC trade salaries and apprentice funding.
This page is about permits. For jobs that need a licence, registration or ticket in BC, use the licensed and certified jobs index or start with jobs you didn’t know need a licence.
This page relies on the official pages below. Rules, fees and processes change, so check the authority before you apply or spend money.
Links checked November 1, 2026. Found an error or a broken link? Report it.