The issue of secondary suites went before High River council again Monday.

Mayor Craig Snodgrass says, just like in Calgary, having each individual request come to council for a public hearing is a waste of time and resources.

"This stuff's gone, it's out of control," he says. "Doing these public hearings and the amount of staff time it takes to prepare this stuff just for a secondary suite is 100 per cent ridiculous."

He says watching Calgary city council deal with it showed just how bad the situation has gotten.

"I don't know how many hours Calgary city council spent there on Friday but it was 38 applications, I think 34 of them were approved, so you denied four?" the mayor says. "Where's the win for all the time you spent on that?"

He says there have been instances in High River where suites were denied and the the applicants went ahead and started building them the next day and the only time the town can do anything about them is after something bad has happened. It would be very expensive having to go to court over the suites or to get a warrant just to be able to look at them.

Snodgrass says the suites need to be allowed as a permitted use at the discretion of staff, with the proper rules for safety codes.

He says the issue is being dealt with in the overhaul of the town's Land Use By-law.