Condo News-Fall 2023

VOL. 17 • FALL 2023

Wentworth Condominium Corporation #36

A Plastic Shovel to Build a Condominium - Auditor General’s Report: A Business look at

some solutions for the industry

Looking Back, Looking Forward; six years of the Condominium Authority of Ontario Bill 91 - Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023

&

Understanding the Role of Makeup Air Equipment

Buried Services: Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind Beware: Your “Independent Contractor” may be an Employee Highlights of the 2023 GHC-CCI Annual Conference Effective Leadership

Top Tip - Fall Readiness

Q&A: Challenges Facing Management and Cultivating Supportive Manager Relations

Atrens-Counsel Insurance Brokers

FEATURES 8

A Plastic Shovel to Build a Condominium Auditor General’s Report: A Business look at some solutions for the industry.

12

Looking Back, Looking Forward; Six years of the Condominium Authority of Ontario

14

Bill 91 – Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023 Changes to the Condominium Act, 1998 – Rank 7.5/10

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From the President

7

Upcoming Events

18

Highlights of the 2023 Annual Conference

23

Report on the 2023 GHC-CCI AGM

32

Condo of the Year Information

16

Feature Condo: Wentworth Condominium Corporation #36

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Effective Leadership

38

Understanding The Role and Function of Makeup Air Equipment

42

Buried Services: Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind

33

Q&A: Procedures, Harassment and Shared Facilities

48

Beware: Your “Independent Contractor” May be an Employee

37

New CCI Golden Horseshoe Members

51

“Top Tip” – Fall Readiness

37

New Member Profile - Registon Building Restoration Ltd.

47

Tool Talk Videos

39

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SimpsonWigle Law LLP

COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE

Gail Cote

Craig McMillan

Carole Booth

Paola Beci Gjata

Jonathan Miller

Jeremy Nixon

Colin Ogg

Tim Van Zwol

Co-Chair

Board Liaison

Dave Williams

4 GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE

Co-Chair

Condo News

is produced 4 times per year

Summer Issue (July) Deadline – June 15th Fall Issue (October) Deadline – September 15th Winter (January) Deadline – December 15th Spring (May) Deadline – April 15th Articles of interest to condominium owners and directors are welcome.

See details for submissions on page 50.

To advertise contact:

Golden Horseshoe Chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute

Box 37, Burlington, Ontario L7R 3X8 Tel: 905-631-0124 | 1-844-631-0124 Fax: 416-491-1670 Email: admin@cci-ghc.ca The authors, the Canadian Condominium Institute, and its representatives will not be held liable in any respect whatsoever for any statement or advice contained herein. Articles should not be relied upon as a professional opinion or as an authoritative or comprehensive answer in any case. Professional advice should be obtained after discussing all particulars applicable in the specific circumstances in order to obtain an opinion or report capable of absolving condominium directors from liability [under s. 37 (3) (b) of the Condominium Act, 1998].

Authors’ views expressed in any article are not necessarily those of the Canadian Condominium Institute.

All contributors are deemed to have consented to publication of any information provided by them, including business or personal contact information.

Advertisements are paid advertising and do not imply endorsement of or any liability whatsoever on the part of CCI with respect to any product, service or statement.

#LifeIsGolden

FROM THE PRESIDENT

From the President

Richard Elia, B.Comm., LL.B., LL.M.(ADR), ACCI

GHC-CCI President

T

wo years ago, I very reluctantly agreed to take on the role of Golden Horseshoe Chapter Vice-President, thereby committing, in a way, to writing this President’s Message.

For those who are unaware, CCI is 41 years old – it was founded in 1982 as a national, independent, non-profit organization to provide education, information, awareness and access to expertise by and to its members. I haven’t aways been a fan of CCI. Thinking back to 1982, for example, I turned 17, was finishing up high school, my life was ahead of me. I wasn’t sure what my goals were, but I’m fairly certain that CCI wasn’t on my radar. In fact, I broke my first condo rule a short while later (I drove my truck on the common element sidewalk in front of my townhouse) without even considering that it might not be allowed.

What changed? Awareness. I was introduced to CCI in the late ‘90s, and first became a member in 2001. I have now thoroughly and completely “drunk the cool-aid”.

CCI is Condo Education!

Don’t let the nay-sayers fool you. Yes, we rely on sponsorships – we are, after all, a non-profit organization that receives no government funding – none.

Whether you are a unit owner, board member, property manager, service provider, auditor, engineer, lawyer or anyone else whose lives are impacted in some way by condominium corporations, CCI can and will help you in what you do vis-à-vis a condominium.

Unit Owner and Board member education is only the starting point. A lack of awareness and knowledge in a condominium environment fosters conflict and disputes. However, the opposite also holds true, meaning that CCI can help foster community - within your community.

But what about professionals? I am a condominium lawyer by profession.

What can I get out of CCI? The answer should, but may not, be obvious. CCI provides me with a community of likeminded individuals from whom, and with whom, I can learn, discuss and debate. It is a safe environment that allows me to canvas an idea that I might think is new or novel…or to have someone else discuss an idea they might think is new or novel and exchange feedback.

In what other environment would I be able to sit down and speak, with respected leaders in this industry – owners, managers, auditors, engineers, lawyers, etc… - about anything related to condominium corporations.

Why have I gone on so long?

Because while we achieve very good attendance at conferences and topical sessions, our core directors’ courses, which are crucial for both unit owners and Condo News | FALL 2023

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FROM THE PRESIDENT CONT’D

Golden Horseshoe Chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute Box 37, Burlington, Ontario L7R 3X8 Tel: 905-631-0124 | Toll Free 1-844-631-0124 Fax: 416-491-1670 | Email: admin@cci-ghc.ca Website: Website: www.cci-ghc.ca

2023-2024 Board of Directors PRESIDENT

Richard Elia, B.Comm., LL.B, LL.M (ADR) ACCI (Board Liaison Education Committee) PAST-PRESIDENT

Sandy Foulds, RCM, BA

TREASURER

Alicia Gatto, CPA, CA, LPA (Chair Finance Committee) SECRETARY

Will MacKay, CFP, CIM

(Member Finance Committee)

directors, need better turnout. One of the goals I have for our Board is to increase demand for CCI – especially by increasing our condominium membership and attendance by owners and board members.

We are off to a good start: 1. A few short weeks ago, Stephanie Sutherland and her team Natalie Park, Karen King, Will Mackay and Michelle Kelly orchestrated one of the best Golden Horseshoe Condominium Conferences to date. Conferences remind me a bit of a pressure cooker – a high pressure environment (particularly the planning stages) bringing together so many good and diverse elements (educational sessions, trades, ideas, sponsors, old friends and, or course, new friends).

2. On October 18th, we held our Chapter AGM. At the AGM, we heard Alicia Gatto explain the (good) state of our Chapter’s finances, and the positive impact of our Conference Committee, we heard from our Committee Chairs, and we held our elections. We are losing retiring directors Carole Booth, Sally-Anne Dooman

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Maria Durdan, B.A., LL.B., ACCI

(Member Education Committee, Member Finance Committee, Member Ron Danks Award Committee)

JJ Foulds, BA, OLCM, RCM Tom Gallinger, BBA, FCIP

Patrick Greco, B.A.Sc., LL.B.

(Chair Policy & Governance Committee)

Michelle Joy, BA, RCM, OLCM

Thomas F. Nederpel, B.Sc., PEng (Chair External Relations Committee) Kevin Shaw, B.Tech (Arch. Sc)

(Board Liaison Professional & Business Partners’ Committee)

Denis Theriault

6 GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE

Normac

and Diana Lawrie from our Board. This is unfortunate and while they will surely be missed, I am happy to welcome JJ Foulds and Michelle Joy and, welcome back Maria Durdan to the Board.

Having worked with all three of these individuals in the past, I’m excited to have them as part of the Board. In the spirit of CCI (being about education), we also used the opportunity to present, discuss, and debate recent caselaw and the proclamation of Bill 91 into law (amending the Condominium Act, 1998). It is aways great fun – in a challenging way - to present, discuss, and debate with Stephanie Sutherland and Mike Mullen (moderator); and finally, 3. “The greatest leader is not necessarily the one who does the

greatest things. [He/she/they] are the one that gets the people to do the greatest things” [Ronald Reagan]. We have all benefited from having Sandy Foulds lead CCI-GHC for the last 2 years, when our Chapter (and the world) was very hesitantly coming out of the Covid lockdown. Sandy’s leadership style saw so much happen – the phenomenal growth and success of Professional Partners Committee; increasingly successful conferences, the growth our on-line educational offerings, and the tremendous and active participation and contribution by board and committee members.

in the year ahead, we will continue to focus on these initiatives, including providing more opportunities for the meaningful engagement of our members, improved educational resources for all condominium consumers, and exciting events held in collaboration with other CCI Chapters. We have come a long way since 1982. We have found our way through, and out of, the Covid lockdown. CCI-GHC continues to grow in exciting and innovative directions, and I greatly appreciate the opportunity to be a part of it Richard Elia GHC-CCI President

I would like to see the progress made by CCI-GHC under the leadership of Sandy (and before her Maria Durdan) continue. I am hopeful that

Upcoming Events

December 5, 2023

Meeting The Life of a Condo, from Infant to Toddler - The first 2 years after condo rregistration January 26, 2024

Seminar Professional Partners Committee Lunch & Learn October 23, 2024

Meeting Annual General Meeting

Condo News | FALL 2023

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FEATURE

A Plastic Shovel to Build a Condominium Dave Williams

Auditor General’s Report: A Business look at some solutions for the industry.

Our summer article attempted to provide an abbreviated look at the AG’s report on the industry. During the writing of the article, I discovered that many industry people had not read the report so decided to include the “Coles Notes” version of the AG report which in turn made the article a bit long.

What follows now are some suggested solutions to some tough problems.

These solutions are partially good business practices, some needed legislative re-jigging of condo law taking ideas from the US and finally, some strong desire on the part of the various non-government participants in the industry to change; it is now 2023.

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CAO…….. is in touch.

Some ideas (Solutions)

In response to the summer article, I had a pleasant conversation with a representative of the CAO. Among other things I was reminded that Condos are intended to be “self-managed.” I had forgotten this but got curious about what it meant.

In part it means that the board of directors are empowered to make the important calls with respect to governance. Apparently, it can also mean a condo that is managed by the board “without a property manager.” If anyone out there has a clearer interpretation, I am all ears.

If you have followed this column over the last couple of years, you will probably know that I am nuts about communicating. Having owned condos in both Florida and Ontario, communications are the first important difference in the two jurisdictions.

Is there an enemy here?

No……….there is no enemy here!

The person on the other end of the phone or email or letter is your customer………full stop. If they are yelling at you then they are likely frustrated by lack of information, lack of understanding, or a bunch of poor or no communication. This person does however pay the bills, wait for it…..finances the industry. He/she is the resident owner or renter.

Of course, they can be difficult… but who doesn’t seem difficult when they are kept in the dark and fed “nothing.” Remember, when they bought their unit, the salesperson told them………. condos are great……. all the lawn cutting, snow removal, roof repairs are done. All you need to do is relax.

What is never explained, at least in my experience, is that all those activities still need to be financed with their money. Worse still, no one clarifies that as the building(s), common areas, infrastructure ages; repairs are more frequent and more costly. It is the same as owning your own home with the exception that some of these services are “shared” (landscaping, snow removal).

Florida’s Sunshine Law (Yes that is what it is called) This is a very robust law. Here is an abbreviated definition. The “law” provides a right of access (for residents) to governmental proceedings at both the state and local levels.

It applies to 2 or more members of the same board meeting, to discuss community business.

Specifically. Florida Statutes 718.112(2)(c) provide that meetings of the board are open to all unit owners, who may tape record or videotape such meetings. The law states that unit owners have the right to speak at such meetings on all designated agenda items.

Whenever an item of board business is put to a vote, the person making the motion for approval of the item should be identified in the minutes, as should the name of the person who seconds the motion.

Both Condominium and HOA Acts require the vote of every director to be recorded in the minutes.

It is believed that most US States have similar laws.

So, what does this mean? There are no dark areas, no secrets and board business, is out there for everyone to see and digest.

My experience here (in Ontario) is the opposite……..there is little if any transparency. I did sit on boards in both countries. The big difference is in “the level of frustration” amongst unit owners. It is agreed

that many residents don’t want to hear the day to day “stuff,” but many do. Those that don’t may be afraid of admitting they don’t understand the financial issues, or the local laws or the challenges faced by their board.

On the other hand, many do want to know. You will always hear that there is always the guy that makes all the noise. Rest assured that there is a dozen or so others behind him with the same questions.

Here is the rub. In the US, rarely are there more than 2 or 3 (out of 700) who will show up at a meeting without a reason. Often, they raise good points or suggestions and are very orderly in doing so. They are given the floor and often are happy to let the board deliberate and get back to them. So, if in your community/building, you fear disruption by owner attendance……….. get over it.

In fact, Ontario Boards of Directors; I challenge you to open your meetings and give it a try. If you have a personal matter to discuss, you can always go “in camera” for 15 minutes.

Annual Elections (Nominating Committees) In Florida we always had a nominating committee. The committee was established 6 months ahead of the annual meeting when 2 or 3 board people would be elected. I can’t remember the terms for board members; I think it was probably staggered ie 2 and 3 years.

What is important to understand is the nominating committee had two important roles. First, to identify probable interested and qualified parties but secondly, to explain very carefully, what is involved. This often allays some fears that potentially good candidates might have.

Here (in Ontario), the property manager would publish a one liner Condo News | FALL 2023

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that the annual meeting was coming and interested parties should submit their names. No preamble or advance discussion………. period.

I always felt in our board in Ontario, that directors preferred to appoint new board members when someone died or resigned. This practice, which is legal, can prevent boards from fresh idea development and participation from folks that might be professionally well suited to be a director. This is as opposed to appointing someone who is friendly to the current board members.

At this point I need to pause and say clearly that there are many boards here that are in fact well managed and conducting business in a good and business-like manner………way to go!

Board Makeup The make-up of a condo board is critical to long-term good management. If you can find people with professional experience….. so much the better. Accounting, legal, construction, psychological/sociological and business…….to name a few.

You cannot always find people with designations but folks that may have developed a career in the industry would be great. Why? They know where to go to get information or help that is needed from time to time.

Reserve Fund Management Your building does age as does any other asset. So, managing your corporation’s annual Reserve Contribution at an annual level with published inflation factors does not cut it. The annual “Reserve Contribution” requires a lot of study.

First, major asset replacement values do not necessarily vary with inflation. If, for example, you have

been funding at the rate of 2% to 3% per year, we just went through 2 years of +6% inflation. Secondly, wood planking as an example went crazy a couple of years ago and has settled back a bit but not to its original pricing.

A third consideration is always the “unexpected catastrophic event.”

Under this heading are such things as foundation leaks, unexpected sinkholes in roadways, early failure of a roof or roadway. It is best to plan for and fund these possibilities because inevitably……..they will happen.

So often we hear of boards that don’t want to put too much money into the reserve because they don’t want to have future residents benefit from their contributions.

That said, boards need to remember that any money put into the reserve generates interest, albeit at 1% or 2%. So, in the longer term, they and all their residents, both past and future, are benefiting.

Communications My favorite and a big deal. There are many ways to improve the transparency of your board.

As mentioned before, open your monthly meetings to residents.

I get that the first time you do this might attract a lot of people but as time goes by, only those that have an issue to discuss will show up.

To help residents understand the finer points of condo corporation management, offer some seminars on reading financial statements.

Bring in speakers that can address important issues like Reserve Management.

Institute a practice of having one well executed “Town Hall Meeting per year.” This can be a great time to engage residents in corporation

10 GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE

issues you are facing to get their input. Remember to thank them for their input and remind them that the final decision on any issue must be a board decision.

A monthly bulletin is always a great tool for communicating with residents. In our community here in Ontario, there was always a monthly “activity” bulletin which contained nothing about the business of the community. In fact, at one board meeting the president said he had run out of things to say in his monthly presidents’ report. What??????

It is very likely I am missing many other opportunities, but the foregoing are the main ones.

The Plastic Shovel Issue So, a few years ago, the Ontario government of the day established two regulatory bodies to oversee the condo industry. “The Condo Authority of Ontario,” and “The Condo Managers Regulatory Authority of Ontario.” The first and most obvious question is why the word “regulatory” was left out of the CAO. Mm! If you ask enough questions, you will find that these authorities have very little influence (spelled authority) over the industry. Here is a simple example. The CAO set up the 23-module training course for new board members. One of the auditor’s findings was that “26% of directors sitting on Condo Boards did not spend sufficient time on the training modules.”

Further, “the audit identified 316 individuals and 156 companies that did not hold licenses but were listed in the Condo Authorities public registry.”

There is a lot more, but you get the point. In an interview with an MLA a few months ago, this person basically said that since COVID, gov-

ernments are somewhat reticent to tell people what to do……….or words to that affect.

A few years ago, I tested the mettle of the Tribunal that oversees mediation. First and foremost, a mediator does not act like a judge or arbitrator. The mediator’s charge is to bring two sides to an agreement.

In this case, the mediator told me of his decision.

So here is the issue of the plastic shovel. The government set up the authorities “sans clout.” That is not a knock against the people that work there who are I am sure doing their best to provide information, training, guidance and on and on. Once again, at least given the information before all of us……..the government equipped these folks with plastic shovels to build communities……. either high-rise or oth-

erwise. Not fair to anyone; the authority people, the residents, and to a point the condo board members, lawyers and property managers trying to do what they think is the right thing.

Unless and until all the folks occupying the 890,000 units here in Ontario make contact with their MLA’s with either good or bad reports………nothing will change.

Note from Dave. If you didn’t read the summer article on the same subject, “Here Comes the Judge,” please do so as well as this one. I would love to know your thoughts regardless of whether you are an industry worker, a resident or an authority employee. You can reach me at the email address below. I would also love to hear from some of the well managed condo boards.

References: Value for Money Audit – Condominium Oversight in Ontario. Office of the Auditor General for Ontario.

Condo Sector Needs Improved oversight, Toronto Star February 27th, 2023.

Aleks Dhefto – Condo Authority of Ontario Dave Williams is a retired business executive and graduate of York University. He can be reached at williamsdavem7@gmail.com.

Important note: I also reached out to the CMRAO (Condo Managers Regulatory Authority of Ontario) for comment. I even provided the questions and the deadline date which they asked for. If you guessed that I am still waiting you would be correct.

September 26th 2023

Cion Corp.

Condo News | FALL 2023

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FEATURE

Robin Dafoe

Condominium Authority of Ontario

Looking Back, Looking Forward; Six years of the Condominium Authority of Ontario

T

he CAO celebrated its sixth anniversary on Sept. 1 of this year - and what a thrilling journey it’s been!

When I became CAO’s first employee, I could have never imagined the immensely rewarding experiences that awaited me as I saw a fledgling organization grow into an Ontario consumer protection staple. Six years later, our growing team is as poised as ever to take on new and lasting challenges so we can create strong and vibrant condo communities.

In the early days, our focus was simply creating the basic framework for delivering on our mandate of information, education, and dispute resolution. We opened our doors and launched our first website within days of being designated – thereby taking the first steps toward providing essential and easily accessible condo living information.

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Two months after that, on Nov. 1, we launched our mandatory director training and could now proudly boast about providing education to thousands of condo board directors across the province – another way to enhance consumer protection and support to the sector.

On that same day, we launched the Condominium Authority Tribunal – Ontario’s first fully online tribunal – to help resolve common condo living issues and disputes conveniently, quickly and affordably. The CAT’s jurisdiction was first limited to condo records disputes, but quickly expanded to encapsulate most common nuisances like noise, pets, odour, etc. Within a year of its inception, the CAT was recognized by the Institute of Public Administration of Canada and earned a gold award in Innovative Management for delivering ground-breaking solutions in an agile and cost-effective way.

Fast forward to six years later.

Earlier this summer, we improved our information offering to the condo sector with the launch of the third iteration of our website, which features more content than the first and presents it in a more intuitive and user-friendly way than the second. We were proud to be recognized last month for our continued efforts with another award, this time for Web Excellence.

We also continue to focus on education. Last year we expanded CAO’s advanced director training – with four hours of scenario-based modules flanked by six in-depth guides on important topics like finance, governance, issues management and more. This summer we polled the sector on what they would like to see next on director training.

Over 65 per cent of respondents told us they want to see our optional advanced training become mandatory.

As of this writing, the CAT has resolved 919 tribunal cases, two-thirds of which were resolved by negotiation among parties or mediation with a CAT member.

We will have more to announce on this in the coming months!

Dispute resolution remains central to our mandate. We recently reached a noteworthy milestone as the tribunal, led by Chair, Ian Darling, accepted its 1,000th CAT case.

At any given time, there are over 100 cases in progress at the CAT. Most are about records and noise, but some also deal with more serious issues like harassment. As of this writing, the CAT has resolved 919 tribunal cases, two-thirds of which were resolved by negotiation among parties or mediation with a CAT member.

Of course, none of this journey was seamless. There were growing pains, a global pandemic, as well as a thorough audit by Ontario’s Auditor General. We chose to look at each of these challenges as opportunities to improve our services, learn and become nimbler. The 2020 Condominium Oversight Audit by the Auditor General, for example, pointed to a number of improvements that CAO could undertake,

mostly in how we collect feedback from condo communities and share this data with other consumer protection bodies. We worked diligently and collaboratively with the Auditor General, the Ministry of Public and Business Services, and other stakeholders and were pleased to report 100 per cent implementation of the Auditor General’s recommendations led by CAO by October 2022.

Our eyes are on the future as we move forward and look for opportunities to improve and evolve in the years to come. The CAO’s Board of Directors is undergoing a comprehensive strategic planning exercise this fall that will set the course for the organization for the next several years and will look to further leverage technology innovations in order to continue to meet the condo sector’s most pressing needs. I look forward to seeing what lies ahead in CAO’s exciting next chapter!

Condo community members who want to learn more should read our Annual Report.

Do you have feedback on the CAO? Tell us by emailing communications@condoauthorityontario.ca Robin Dafoe is the CEO & Registrar of the Condominium Authority of Ontario.

She was CAO’s first employee and launched it and the CMRAO as Executive Director and Registrar for both.

Previously, Robin worked in the Ontario Public Service, EQAO and Ontario Heritage Trust in a variety of senior management positions.

Robin has a Master of Laws from Osgoode Hall Law School, a Master of Business Administration from Schulich School of Business.

Condo News | FALL 2023

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FEATURE

Bill 91 – Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023 – effective October 1, 2023

Changes to the Condominium Act, 1998 7.5/10

– Rank

Bill 91 – Less Red Tape, Stronger Economy Act, 2023 – effective October 1, 2023 Maria Durdan

B.A., LL.B., ACCI

SimpsonWigle LAW LLP

Changes to the Condominium Act, 1998 – Rank 7.5/10

T

here is little doubt that many were looking forward to October 1, 2023, at which time Bill 91 was proclaimed into law – and why not? After all, Bill 91 codifies much of what the Ontario Government brought in as emergency legislation during the Covid Lockdown. For example,

Richard Elia

LL.B, LL.M.(ADR), ACCI Elia Associaties PC

1. Virtual Owners’ meetings can be called and held without a by-law authorizing same (with a very logical requirement that Owners be instructed on how to log into the meeting); 2. Virtual Board meetings no longer require the consent of all directors (previously, any one director held effective veto power over a meeting being held in this manner); 3. It has been further clarified that in a virtual Board meeting, all directors must be able to communicate simultaneously and instantaneously (this

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confirms that e-mail does not qualify as a way to hold a Board meeting); and 4. Electronic Notices are now the norm (unless an Owner directs otherwise).

If Bill 91 is so absolutely fabulous, why do we only rank it 7.5 out of a possible 10?

Condominium corporations are democratic entitles. Democracy, as we are witnessing first hand, is not only hard work, but also a privilege.

Principles that make democracy work, such as having the ability to reasonably participate in a democratic process, should not be taken for granted or applied lightly – both by those in power and by those voting.

The practice of advanced voting has always attracted a degree of controversy. While it was not addressed in the Ontario Government’s Emergency Measures, the practice of advanced voting has become common place.

In general, there are two challenges with advanced voting: First – was advanced voting legal? The Condominium Act, 1998 (the “Act”) requires attendance be either in person or by proxy. For better or worse, and without any debate on the merits of simplifying the absurdly complicated proxy form (yes, proxies allow for advanced voting) this particular challenge has been put to rest by the addition of section 45(9), which reads: “(9) A person who, through telephonic or electronic means, casts a vote before [the meeting] …is deemed for the purposes of this Act to be present at the meeting.”

However, despite the addition of the above, advanced voting seems to fly in the face of the new section 45(8) which demands reasonable

With advanced voting, owners are being encouraged to vote – they are not being encouraged to participate. participation by Owners at virtual meetings. Specifically, “A meeting owners held [virtually]…must enable all persons entitled to attend the meeting to reasonably participate.”

“To reasonably participate” are nice words – and are no doubt well intentioned; however, question whether reasonable participation can be achieved in an environment where an Owner who votes in advance of the meeting is deemed to be present at the meeting. Or is reasonable participation limited only to those in actual attendance at the meeting – which could be argued to be the more practical interpretation of this new section.

Advocates of advanced voting/ deemed attendance will raise the point of superior attendance being achieved at meeting – or superior “deemed” attendance. Imagine a 100-unit condo. Attendance at a meeting where advanced voting is used might be 75 or 80% of units.

However, when it comes to discussing or debating motions, the number of units actually participating can be ridiculously low. Those who vote in advance, it seems, may not feel compelled to attend and participate at the meeting.

With advanced voting, owners are being encouraged to vote – they are not being encouraged to partici-

pate. Voting in advance of the meeting implies voting before - the wording of the motion has even been made; - there has been any discussion or debate on the motion; and - there has been any consideration of an amendment to the motion.

Owners who are not in actual attendance do not take part in procedural motions, or even ballot votes when same is demanded.

None of this is taken into consideration – should it have been?

It is sometimes considered that success in holding a meeting is achieved when the Board is able to get through the business of the meeting quickly, with very few questions to answer; however, neither is correct, and neither advances the interests of a democratic entity - a condominium or otherwise.

We have always had the ability to vote in advance. It is called a proxy.

With the amendments to the Act that were introduced on November 1, 2017, an onerously complicated proxy form was forced upon condominium communities. A person appointed as a proxy stands in for the Owner and can participate, debate and vote on behalf of that Owner.

Advanced voting where an Owner is only deemed to be in attendance, misses the mark.

Rather than fix the problem with proxies, Bill 91 introduces a new concept that only offers lip service to the ideal of reasonable participation at meetings by Owners. Query, however, if the opportunity to participate is all that is required – the rest is up to the Owner that is willing to participate. You can lead a horse to water…

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FEATURE CONDO

Feature Condo: Wentworth Condominium Corporation #36

Wentworth Condominium Corporation #36

A friendly and welcoming community.

T Martin Venema

Property Manager

his 13-unit town-house condominium corporation was registered in September 1976. Despite being in a major urban centre, the residents enjoy the small-town feeling offered by an exclusive location which is set back from the street and is almost hidden from view. With 6 units on one side facing across to 7 units on the other side, residents quickly get to know their neighbours in this close-knit community.

Residents report that the overall environment in the Condominium community is very friendly and welcoming. Neighbours look after each other’s needs and extend helping hands. To exemplify this, during a heavy snow last year, 4 residents helped to dig out a car from the snow. Residents are now banding together to plan a Community Vegetable Garden in the well-maintained common area which will enhance collaboration and further foster good relations amongst neighbours.

Being almost 50 years old, this corporation is going through a renewal phase. Staying ahead of the maintenance needs can be a challenge. The board has strived to make wise decisions with their reserve fund expenses,

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regularly prioritizing repair and maintenance needs to protect the investments that unit owners have made. Here is a summary of how the reserve fund has been used in the past year.

Railings on porches

Wrought iron railings don’t last forever. They were badly corroded and presented a safety risk. Replacing like-for-like was prohibitively expensive, so the board opted to install new aluminum railings to improve the safety and the aesthetics of the front porches. They matched the colour of the railings to the new eavestroughs and downspouts that were installed earlier in the year.

Replacing Wrought Iron with Aluminum Railings

Prioritizing fence repairs

An argument could have been made for replacing all of the privacy fences and perimeter fences. However, the board decided to prioritize those sections needing repairs most urgently. A multi-year plan has been established to replace the remainder of the fences.

Perimeter Fence Repairs - Before and After

Snow storage area expansion

One of the biggest concerns voiced by residents over the years had been the lack of visitor parking space. This is exacerbated during Winter when snow banks tend to encroach into parking spots. The board undertook some landscape enhancements that involved removing concrete curbs at the end of the parking lot to expand the snow storage area.

Snow Storage Area - Before and After

While items remain in the to-do list (and always will), the board is proud of the decisions they have made and their accomplishments in maintaining the corporation’s common elements without deviating from the cash-flow table in the last Reserve Fund Study. Response from owners has been favourable; they appreciate seeing their reserve fund contributions put to good use.

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Highlights of the 2023 Annual Conference Stephanie Sutherland, Cohen Highley LLP

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he annual Conference & Tradeshow of the Golden Horseshoe Chapter of CCI took place on September 15, 2023, at OE Banquet Hall in Oakville. It was the second in-person Conference for the Chapter since the Covid-19 pandemic, and the numbers of attendees, exhibitors, and sponsors increased substantially from the previous year. In total there were 45 exhibitors, 26 sponsors, 23 speakers and moderators, and 378 attendees including exhibitors, sponsors, moderators, and speakers.

The day began with an excellent informative presentation from Heather Neal, Manager of Crisis Services with CMHA Halton, who was joined by Halton Region police officer Nick Wasser to discuss the local COAST program. COAST, or Crisis Outreach and Support Team, provides services to community members who are experiencing a mental health crisis. As mental health is an increasingly important issue in condominiums, this presentation was very timely, and provided audience members with information about the program and how to access its services.

The program continued under the theme of “There’s No Playbook for That”, with presentations on Effective Leadership - There’s a Play-

book for That!, Reserve Fund Studies - Are You Playing by the Rules?, How to Decipher the Contractor’s Playbook, and ending with a legal panel which involved the lawyers on the panel acting out a skit of a poorly-run CAT mediation then discussing how the CAT application could have been better dealt with by the condo.

Between the presentations, attendees were able to visit with the exhibitors in the exhibitor’s showroom and were provided with excellent food and refreshments provided by the venue. Exhibitors reported having great traffic from attendees and being able to catch up with ongoing clients as well as making new connections. Attendees were able to meet a wide variety of service pro-

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viders for their condominium needs.

The day finished with a cocktail reception organized by the Chapter’s Professional and Business Partners Committee, where attendees, exhibitors, sponsors, and speakers were able to network on a more informal basis and enjoy a drink at the end of a long day.

As Chair of the 2023 Conference Committee, I cannot express enough how appreciative I am of the hard work and dedication of the oth-

er Committee members: Karen King of King Condo Management, Natalie Park of PARK Group of Companies, Will MacKay of CIBC Wood Gundy, the MacKay Financial Group, and

Michelle Kelly of Robson Carpenter LLP. And as always, the Conference would not have been possible without the support of the wonderful CCI Admin folks at Association Concepts, and in particular Rachel Gilmore.

I greatly enjoyed being Chair of the Committee this year and look forward to seeing how the Chapter continues to improve the Conference & Tradeshow for next year.

CLICK HERE for more Conference Photos 20 GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE

Conference Reception One of the many highlights of this year’s Golden Horseshoe Conference was the Cocktail Reception, which was held in the Foyer of the OE Banquet and Conference Centre.

As attendees wrapped up a full day of learning from industry experts and a very busy and bustling trade floor (with lots of great swag to take back to the office), and close to fifty exhibitor booths for both Board of Directors and Managers to reconnect with the Golden Horseshoe Chapters Professional Business Partners or consider them as future options to serve their community needs, the last part of the day and arguably lots more fun than trying to find parking at this year’s conference began.

Networking can sometimes feel awkward and structured. However, that is definitely not the case at this conference. As the exhibitors packed up their booths and delegates finished up the last session of the day, they mingled with ease over a beverage or two, hors d’oeuvres were shared and conversations flowed between attendees. People caught up with each other after a busy summer season in a more relaxed informal environment while local musician Benji Crane provided the backdrop for a great way to close out an incredible day of connecting, learning, and sharing stories in our collective Condominium world.

A special thanks to this year’s reception sponsor McIntosh Perry Consulting Engineers.

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PARTNER SPONSOR

PLATINUM SPONSOR

GOLD SPONSORS

SILVER SPONSORS

BRONZE SPONSORS

22 GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE

Report on the 2023 GHC-CCI AGM

The Golden Horseshoe Chapter held their annual meeting on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 in Hamilton, ON. Thank you to our sponsors that supported the event:

Thank you to the Board of Directors over the past year: President:

Sandy Foulds

Vice President: Richard Elia Past President: Maria Durdan Treasurer:

Alicia Gatto

Secretary:

Will Mackay

Board of Directors: • Carole Booth • Sally-Anne Dooman • Tom Gallinger • Patrick Greco • Diana Lawrie • Kevin Shaw • Thomas Nederpel • Denis Theriault

Retiring board members included Carole Booth, Sally-Anne Dooman, Diana Lawrie and Maria Durdan – Thank you for your dedication and commitment to the Golden Horseshoe Chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute.

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Congratulations Maria Durdan on her re-election to the Board, as well as our two new Board Members; JJ Foulds, and Michelle Joy.

Maria Durdan

Maria is a Partner at SimpsonWigle LAW LLP and the Chair of the Condominium Practice Group. Maria specializes in condominium law, development and administration. Maria supports over 650 of the firm’s residential and commercial condominium clients throughout Ontario. Maria has also obtained her Associate of Canadian Condominium Institute (ACCI) designation in law, which recognizes that she has achieved a high level of knowledge and skill of condominium law. Maria is a member of the Hamilton Law Association Real Estate Subcommittee and a Past President of the Canadian Condominium Institute – Golden Horseshoe Chapter and a Co-Chair of the Education Committee. Maria’s practice includes advising boards of directors, property managers and developers on all areas of condominium law.

Upon completing her business degree, JJ worked in the agricultural and insurance industries before joining the Condo Industry in 2017. JJ quickly adapted to the condominium industry and has excelled at managing high-rise, townhouse and vacant land sites in addition to commercial condominium properties. She also has a great deal of experience dealing with Tarion first year projects. JJ obtained her RCM designation in 2020 and assists in training, recruiting, and mentoring new condominium professionals.

JJ Foulds

BA, OLCM, RCM

Michelle Joy

BA, RCM, OLCM

In 2022, JJ also joined the Board of Directors of her own Condominium Corporation, a 35-unit older townhouse complex in South Burlington. We are currently taking on a number of major projects and reviewing our Reserve Fund for future expenditures. I am looking forward to getting even more involved in the Condo Industry and bringing my experience as a Board member to CCI. I am currently employed with Wilson Blanchard Management as the Executive Director of Condominium Management. I have been in the Condominium industry for 10 years, starting with a role in accounting and transitioning to property management. I achieved my Registered Condominium Manager designation with ACMO in 2017 and am also a General License Manager with the CMRAO. I have been actively involved with CCI Golden Horseshoe for several years now as a regular participant in the Condo Talk series, other education sessions and a past committee member. I enjoying having the opportunity to connect with others in the industry and learn from one another. In addition to my volunteer role with CCI, I also teach the Condominium Excellence course with the CMRAO and am an instructor at Humber College in their Condominium Management Program. I look forward to the opportunity to join the Board of Directors and further contribute to the Golden Horseshoe condominium community which I am already very passionate about.

Sandy Foulds presented Niagara South Condo Corporation #34 the Mansions of Forest Glen with this year’s Condo of the Year Award. Accepting the award was Gaby Arato, President of NSCC #34.

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Annual General Meeting Cont’d Sandy Foulds passed the gavel to incoming President Richard Elia, and Sandy was hononored for her commitment and dedication to the Golden Horseshoe Chapter as President over the past two years.

Lionheart Property Management

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Golden Horseshoe Chapter

Your 2023-2024 Golden Horseshoe Chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute Board of Directors Executive

President Richard A. Elia, B.Comm., LL.B., LL.M.(ADR), ACCI Elia Associates

Past-President Sandy Foulds, B.A., RCM Wilson Blanchard Management

Treasurer Alicia Gatto, CPA, CA, LPA Gatto CPA Professional Corporation

Secretary Will Mackay, CFP, CIM CIBC Wood Gundy

Board of Directors

Maria Durdan, B.A., LL.B., ACCI SimpsonWigle LAW LLP

JJ Foulds, BA, OLCM, RCM Halton Condo Corp #88

Tom Gallinger, BBA, FCIP Atrens-Counsel Insurance Brokers

Patrick Greco, B.A.Sc., LL.B. Shibley Righton LLP

Michelle Joy, BA, RCM, OLCM Wilson Blanchard Management

Thomas F. Nederpel, BSc, PEng

Kevin Shaw, B.Tech. (Arch.Sc.) Cion Corp. - Engineers & Building Scientists

Denis Theriault EXP Services Inc.

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Brown & Beattie Ltd

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FEATURE

Effective Leadership Craig McMillan

RCM, ACCI, CMCA, CAPM Maple Ridge Community Management (MRCM)

T

here is a lot to cover under the headline of Effective Leadership. During the recent CCI Golden Horseshoe Chapter Annual Condo Conference I gave a presentation on some key points of Effective Leadership.

The Definition of Leadership is constantly evolving. Authority-based leadership was prevalent in yesteryear, and probably many of us have worked for an organization or Leader that reminds us of this top-down approach, where the “Boss” is above all the employees and wields power and even a certain level of fear over their employees.

Thankfully leadership evolved. Today leadership is more collaborative in nature where the leader is working hand in hand with employees motivating everyone in the organization working towards common goals and the leader is assisting employees on their own leadership journey.

Then there is the reality of the modern world. Leadership of people takes a lot of effort, time, and emotional capital, the competition to have people work effectively while they are constantly being distracted by life events and notably by their phones. This involves a delicate balancing act.

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Leadership is all three of these points, and more. Sometimes it is necessary to use authority-based leadership to achieve certain goals and to maintain healthy work boundaries. Leaders need to look for the opportunity to lead from the front and be seen doing so, helping the team reach the goal. If you can strike a balance in the first two points, the third may not apply too often, although I am sure there is not a leader reading this article that hasn’t felt at some point like they are the only ones moving the needle.

Leadership is hard. Many people shy away from becoming leaders, as it involves making people both accountable and responsible for the work that has to be completed as well as juggling all the dynamics of employees’ ever-changing needs and demands.

cliff we are facing where approximately 50% of current Licensed Managers will be retiring in the next 5 to 10 years it becomes clear why a positive culture is so important.

Why should condominium directors care? Isn’t that the management company’s problem. Well, it’s not enough for the company to have a great culture. Directors have a big role to play as how Directors interact and treat staff will ultimately factor into engagement levels and longevity of the people that work for the community.

Leaders in both the management company and the condominium board will either help with retention and engagement that will lead to positive outcomes or they will churn through managers and management companies resulting in loss of continuity for the community.

Culture

Effective Communication

The Leaders drive the Culture of a workplace. Workplace culture is a huge part of why employees are engaged at work. At any organization, including Condominiums, a great culture will ensure that people stay longer and this in turn increases continuity within the community.

So, it’s about retention, and engagement as an engaged employee will do more voluntarily on their own accord. They will essentially lead themselves within a framework provided by leadership.

In today’s job market as we all should know by now there is a shortage of competent and capable Licensed Managers in Ontario so competition to attract and keep talent is top of mind for service providers and should be by the Board as well. Combine that with the continued growth of Condominium construction and add the demographic

We all get way too much communication from all different sources, and the volume can be staggering. However, there is a way to manage the inbox and even reduce the amount of communication necessary to get tasks completed. It starts with being thoughtful and intentional on approaching communication and reduce the steps needed to convey or respond to a message.

Behold the Communication Loop, the key to successful communication is to close the loop.

Step 1: Communication is received and here the sender is expecting a response from the receiver - an acknowledgment that their communication has been received that typically should be within two working days or 48 hours. It’s a sliding scale as emergency situations require an immediate response, while unit 104

can wait a few days to receive a response on a more trivial matter.

Step 2: This is where we determine the action required, identifying the decision makers, if the action needed is beyond the management contractual limitations. Remember the board is always the ultimate decision maker; however, they may need to seek professional assistance in coming to an informed decision, an engineer, lawyer or other industry professional, who can provide subject matter expertise to the board, then once the board has the facts, a decision needs to made and direction provided.

Step 3: The task is assigned to the appropriate entity to complete.

Avoiding time traps and setting realistic expectations are critical here.

Appeasing people in the moment, knowing full well that the time constraints they are imposing can’t be met will damage the credibility of the board and management.

Step 4: Close the loop. Advise the sender of the communication and any other parties involved of the decision, any action that will be taken and provide relevant information. By doing this and being clear, on this final step will bring the matter to a close.

The board can also help tremendously in streamlining communication by assigning one person on the board to be the point of contact with the Manager. The board can discuss an issue amongst themselves and then deliver one email to the manager, instead of a barrage of conversations and questions on a topic.

Prepare Plan Execute Running a condominium takes a lot of effort from everyone involved and it can be daunting to think about Condo News | FALL 2023

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all these possible tasks that need to be considered, identifying potential challenges, and confronting them before they become a crisis. Preparing, planning, and executing strategies will result in positive outcomes for the community or at the very least minimize negative ones.

Preparation is the process of looking at the known events the condominium will face in the short, medium and long term as well as preparing for the unknown events that may occur or are likely to affect the condominium now, and beyond the horizon and preparing responses to those possible risks.

Planning is the function of taking that list of prepared for eventualities and developing and analyzing appropriate responses to each one.

This does take time however the complexity of tasks that condominiums face means leaving it to some sort of last-minute response is not an appropriate strategy.

Executing the plan. It’s great to prepare and plan but if the plan is not actually implemented and the appropriate action taken it will be for nothing.

It is important to ensure there is implementation on the key deliverables of the plan. We have tools, like the annual plan of tasks for the condominium or the Reserve Fund Study plan to name a few; ultimately, it’s done by ensuring everyone involved knows who is responsible, who is accountable, who is being consulted and who is informed.

Making Difficult Decisions The condominium board must make difficult decisions. They are the ultimate decision maker for the community, and that may lead to some sort of conflict as you can’t

please all the people all the time no matter how hard you try. Here some of the hurdles that boards may face: Politics on the board - Let’s say a director has been elected to the board on a platform of reducing operating costs or holding the line on common element fee increases. That premise will influence any decision they face moving forward, even if doing so is obviously the wrong way to go. A great way for boards to address this mindset is to put in place a director onboarding meeting. After each new director is elected this meeting can provide the opportunity to review the overall plan for the community and what challenges they face.

Oil and Water - What if the directors don’t like each other and board meetings are testy. You don’t have to like each other or agree on every issue. A carefully written reminder or statement at the beginning of each meeting as to the mandate of the board and why we are all there may be enough to bring a more reasonable approach to decision making, and if things get out of hand the chair can point to that statement to bring those in the room back on track.

Decision Paralysis - What if a board has a real challenge making important decisions. This is not uncommon as some decisions have unclear outcomes or are in the millions of dollars range and may be the largest financial decision, they have ever been involved in making. Here boards need to remind themselves they are not alone in the process, there is a group of directors making the decision also, the manager, and various industry professionals are all there to assist them in making the best-informed decision with the

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available facts at the time.

Delegation If you really want to be a leader of people, you will need to learn to delegate effectively and get comfortable with being uncomfortable with it.

When a manager is promoted to overseeing other managers, it’s usually because they are great at being a manager, being a leader requires different skills which need to be developed and delegation is one of the most important.

In my mind this is where the new leader and the organization they work for struggle the most and with good reason. The newer leaders existing skills gaps become more apparent and failure of others under their supervision has to be accepted by both the new leader and the organization, for that failure is part of their leadership growth.

Being responsible and accountable for someone else’s results is a leader’s obligation that skill takes time to grow. It’s filled with failure and frustration as that high performing manager may feel they are just not up to the challenge; it can be achieved within an environment of controlled failure where the impact is reduced, and they have a mentor to guide them through that part of leadership journey.

Emotional Intelligence Without a strong understanding of emotional intelligence, Leadership will be very difficult for you. I don’t mean you can’t perform the tasks or the functions well because you will get it done, but you will struggle enormously with the weight of leadership and everyone else you’re leading will have a horrible time.

There will be yelling and screaming,

crying, firing, and quitting sometimes all in the same board meeting. If you haven’t attended a board meeting containing all that drama you simply have not lived.

However, the best part of emotional intelligence is it can be grown.

There are five categories of emotional intelligence beyond a good sense of humour: Self-Awareness - This is understanding your own competence.

What you know versus what you don’t know.

Self-Regulation - Keeping your response to situations routed in facts avoiding distorted thinking, be less impulsive.

Motivation – Support, Role Models, a positive Work Environment, Setting goals.

Empathy – Bias, it’s part of who we are, recognize your own bias and work on putting yourself in the other person’s shoes, put your own feelings aside. Be more human as a Leader, give people the benefit of the doubt.

Social Skills – Interacting and communicating with others often, don’t make yourself unapproachable to your team.

Recognize common blind spots like setting unrealistic goals, inadequate resource allocation, misjudging time needed to complete tasks, and my personal favorite - micromanaging your team. Finally, remind ourself to be even kneeled as there may be days of wild swings from highs to lows and back again, keep these emotions in check.

Craig McMillan is President of Maple Ridge Community Management (MRCM) an Associa Company. He has been a Condominium Professional since 2003. Craig holds his RCM designation from ACMO, and his ACCI and LCCI designation from CCI-National. He is a member of the Project Management Institute and holds his Certified Associate in Project Management designation CAPM. He currently serves on the Board of Directors for ACMO and ACMO’s Membership & Programs Committee as well as the Condo Conference Committee He also serves on the Professional & Business Partners Committee and the Communications Committee with CCI - GHC, as well as CMRAO’s Advisory Committee. He is a frequent speaker at industry events & conferences, as well as contributing articles for various industry publications.

Maple Ridge Community Management

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Condo of the Year Information

The Golden Horseshoe Chapter of the Canadian Condominium Institute would like to give your Condominium $500.

Tell us why your Condominium is worthy of winning the “Condo of the Year” award? We are all proud of our homes, you just need to highlight the following points in your article that describes your condominium: l l l l

What are the qualities and features of your Condominium?

What are the accomplishments achieved by your Condominium Corporation?

What is the overall environment like in the Condominium?

What makes residents proud to live there?

Each entry will be featured in one of the upcoming issues of the “Condo News” magazine. There are four issues per year: Spring

Article deadline March 15th

Summer

Article deadline June 15th

Fall

Article deadline September 15th

Winter

Article deadline December 15th

You can either send an article or we can interview you via phone and write an article about your condo for you! Don’t forget to include photos of your condominium.

Interested applicants should submit their articles or contact information for an interview to: by mail CCI-Golden Horseshoe Chapter, PO Box 37 Burlington, ON L7R 3X8

OR

by email admin@cci-ghc.ca

The Condominium will be selected by the GHC-CCI Communications Committee and will be announced at the Annual General Meeting in the fall.

3236GOLDEN CHAPTER OF THEOF CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM G O LHORSESHOE D E N H O R SESHOE CHAPTER THE CANADIA N CO N DINSTITUTE O MI N I U M I NSTI TUTE

Q&A: Procedures, Harassment and Shared Facilities

Challenges Facing Management and Cultivating Supportive Manager Relations Dan Webb

Property Management Guild Inc.

What do you feel are the biggest challenges that Management firms and Managers face at the current time on a day to day basis.

One of the largest “burn outs” of this profession is Boards that do not ‘work with’ the manager but rather against them. Boards have vested interests as owners and Board members, and of course have the best interests of their homes in mind. However not heeding sound advice from their Managers and challenging expert opinions provided from other professions is not conducive to a team approach in “getting the job done” and doing the job effectively.

Rushing to make band aid fixes versus a more costly but proper repair, ends up costing more in the long run as opposed to addressing the issue the proper way the first time. Believing their role is to ‘save the residents money” as opposed to managing their budgets to cover their expenses and effect proper repairs is a huge challenge at times.

Management firms have cultivated working relationships with an abundance of professionals throughout the condominium industries for decades, which is why they are successful at Managing sites. You have engaged a professional management firm with a solid reputation –

and to challenge or disregard their advise on the proper ways to complete work is draining and extremely time consuming to have to continually adapt to ever changing opinions.

Often times as a costs savings, Boards have wanted to put more responsibility on the Manager that should have fallen to other professionals simply due to cost savings. Please remember that Managers are NOT engineers, they are NOT your superintendents, they cannot be managing your capital projects, and Managers are NOT legal advisors. The Manager cannot continue to step into non-Managerial roles. This infringes on the license Managers now carry, causes a lot of undue stress and burns Managers out. There is a shortage of Managers in Ontario, and an ever-growing population of condominiums. The Condominium Act is specific in that Boards should be relying on their professionals advise so please hear what your Manager is telling you.

With the significant increase in condominiums being built in Ontario versus the number of licensed managers in Ontario, what do you feel is the best course of action to retain current managers and intrigue new licensees into this profession?

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I believe the industry needs more protections and Boards need to support their Manager’s.

The authorities currently created ensure the Property Management profession is licensed, educated and exists to protect the rights of owners, but we do not feel anyone has our backs or that our interests are being looked out for as Managers, rather they are being trampled. Management firms and Managers pay a lot of money to be licensed, maintain the educational requirements, etc. but the protections currently in place don’t seem to be in our interest. A lot of fingers appear to point back at the Manager or make it the Manager’s responsibility when we don’t necessarily believe it to be. Promoting an industry that has no supports in place will not intrigue many to this industry.

Educating Boards was a good first step on the basic functions of what condominiums are, however this education needs to be widely publicized and increased each year so that Boards FULLY understand their roles and repercussions of situations that arise and decisions that are made. Education should also be readily made for unit owners upon purchase of their condominium so that they know what they are agreeing to when they purchase the unit – they have bought a part of a community that does come with rules and requirements that need to be followed. So many owners have no idea what they have purchased.

sometimes Board members. The CAT is open for a limited number of items for unit owners to be heard, however there is no current avenue where a Manager can in turn expect similar considerations and support, with the outcome of a judgement for someone causing them harm.

If a Board will not agree to take action on harassing issues, despite the requirement under ss.117, 119, and 134 of the Condominium Act, 1998, the Manager is left with limited options and limited places to turn. There MUST be somewhere that is more simplistic for a Manager to take their concerns before.

In your opinion, does the industry fall short for Managers, and if so in what capacity?

What would you change or not change?

Respecting time. A timely response is expected but this is a two-way street.

The current expectation for owners, boards and sometimes contractors is an immediate response.

These parties need to understand that the Manager is not sitting idly at their computer awaiting an email to arrive. They cannot always respond immediately and an industry standard is an approximate 48 response time unless a dire emergency. However, I would caution that if a dire emergency you not email but rather pick up the phone and call the management office so that the

Yes it falls short on protections for Management’s rights. The industry needs to continue to remove firms and individuals from the pool that do harm to our industry, behave in distrustful fashions, or make it unreasonably difficult to perform our duties.

Currently there is no avenue for a Manager to use when being harassed by owners, contractors and yes,

Since Covid has dissipated have you seen things returning to normal, and if not, in what ways have they changed?

Nothing seems to be as it once used to be. Currently the condominium realm is experiencing a large lack of workers in all trades causing delays and higher costs due to supply chain issues, material cost inflation that is not coming down. Some auditors are just now coming out of a large backlog, due to new processes having to be implemented, staffing shortages which unfortunately can cause delays in holding AGMs. What do you feel the members of the Condominium community need to be aware of regarding Management/Managers that they may not consider?

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situation is addressed much faster.

Your email may not be seen the day you send it, and that is not the fault of the Manager.

Communication responses need to be efficient and timely in coming from the Board to the Manager as well. If a Manager is seeking feedback, approval, comments, etc. the Board should attempt to provide that feedback in a timely manner or at a minimum acknowledge receipt and give an approximate time frame on when the Manager can expect a response.

A suggestion is to have one Board member act as the communication liason person, who can receive the information and contact the individual board members to obtain their feedback, collect and put

this information into one communication back to the manager for all to see. This simplifies the back and forth process, cuts down on many unnecessary emails, and gets “the job done” much faster.

I also ask Boards to recognize a need to be reasonable. Over the years, there have been some that send a laundry list of questions and expected a response to all items the next day or in the very near future.

This is not reasonable. The Manager can receive the list, and will begin working on some items at a time, but Boards must be patient. Please give the Manager time to do their job and report back on items. When sizeable lists are received in this fashion it needs to be understood that the Manager does have other

work to do and cannot necessarily stop all other work to complete the list sent. Perhaps discussing the priority items at the next meeting, and then asking the Manager to complete a couple items each month as time permits. There is no way a large list should ever be formed on “urgent” items, unless under special circumstances.

Dan Webb is a Operations Manager at Property Management Guild Inc.

ACMO

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Nordik Windows & Doors

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New CCI Golden Horseshoe Members

to our Newest Members: CONDOMINIUM CORPORATION - 50-149 UNITS Halton Standard Condominium Corporation #427 - Hamilton, ON BUSINESS PARTNER Stuart Howie, Pinnacle Disaster Service Inc. - Oakville, ON Robin Macina, MeetMyCondo - Ottawa, ON PROFESSIONAL MEMBER Michelle Joy, Wilson Blanchard Management - Hamilton, ON

New Member PROFILE New Member Profile - Registon Building Restoration Ltd.

R Jay Sandhu, P.Eng

Vice President & Partner Registon Building Restoration Ltd.

www.registon.ca

egiston Building Restoration Ltd. specializes in more than just restoration of structures. Our focus is in carefully considering the client’s requests to modify structures according to the building’s purpose, the original vision and the visual aesthetic within the landscape. Our company has been providing its services all over Ontario since 2014.

Registon Building Restoration Ltd. does many kinds of restoration work such as brick replacement, waterproofing, full building sealant replacement, window replacement, parking garage restoration, balcony repairs and glazing.

Our dedicated Health and Safety department ensures we’re always working in full compliance with the Occupational Health and Safety Act. We make sure our team meets all certifications required by the Ministry of Labour policies and regulations before setting foot in the workplace and we carefully audit our job sites daily to maintain top industry and ministry standards. Registon Building Restoration Ltd. aspires to improve on the longevity and legacy of all projects we take on.

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FEATURE

Kelly Halkett

Naylor Building Partnerships

Understanding The Role and Function of Makeup Air Equipment

R

ecent events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the wildfires plaguing Ontario and Quebec had many managers wondering if they should shut down their building’s makeup air equipment to preserve the air quality inside the building for their residents. Managers might not think about the effect this type of weather or situational events has on this equipment, but it is important to remember the role of the equipment and what it is designed to do.

Makeup air equipment, or MUA as most of us know it, is designed to ensure there is adequate ventilation moving within the building by supplying fresh air to pressurize the hallways and common areas to prevent odours from entering the common spaces and provide air changes required for a healthier and more comfortable space for residents.

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In situations when trying to decide if MUA equipment should be turned off, it is important that managers and the Board of Directors are well-informed about local guidelines and recommendations provided by public health agencies or authorities. In addition, ensure that the corporation’s HVAC provider has been consulted to determine the most appropriate measures to maintain a healthy indoor environment while minimizing potential risk as well as having a better understanding of the requirements of the building. However, there are solutions to preserving air quality without shutting the equipment off entirely, such as: 1) Filter Upgrades: It may be beneficial to upgrade the filters that are being used in the MUA to enhance filtration efficiency and capture a higher percentage of airborne particulates, including potentially harmful ones. High-efficiency filters or filters with a higher MERV rating can help improve indoor air quality during a poor air quality event. In addition to upgrading the filter schedule more frequent filter changes can also offer a benefit to building air quality.

2) Adjusting Ventilation Rates: If the MUA has VFD control you may be able to have your HVAC contractor adjust the ventilation rates according to the situation may involve reducing the intake of outdoor air temporarily while still maintaining some level of fresh air supply to meet ventilation requirements.

3) Monitoring Air Quality: Utilizing air quality monitoring systems can provide real-time information about air quality

By giving due attention to filter changes and maintenance, not only will you promote better air quality, but you will also enhance the effeciency of the system and prolong its lifespan.

parameters, such as particulate matter levels or volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

This data can help property managers make informed decisions regarding the operation of the MUA.

Types of MUA: The specific type of MUA equipment used depends on the building’s size, layout, ventilation requirements, and energy efficiency goals.

There are several types of MUAs that are most used in buildings: a) Rooftop units (RTUs) are self-contained HVAC systems placed on the roof of a building. They can be used as makeup air units, providing both ventilation and temperature control for the indoor space. There are limits to how much fresh air can be utilized by these RTU’s before it affects proper operation. b) Air handling units (AHU) are large systems that condition

and distribute the makeup air throughout the building.

AHUs often include heating, cooling, and filtration components to ensure the incoming air is at a comfortable temperature and clean. c) Energy recovery ventilators (ERVs) are specialized MUA equipment that not only brings in fresh air but also recovers heat or cooling from the exhaust air, improving energy efficiency. d) Exhaust fans with louvers: in some cases, exhaust fans may be used to create negative pressure inside the building, drawing in fresh outdoor air through louvers or openings. e) Variable Refrigerant Flow (VRF) systems can also be configured to supply makeup air, offering flexibility in conditioning, and distributing the fresh air throughout the building. f) Dedicated makeup air unit (MUA) is the most common for condominium properties and are standalone units specifically designed for makeup air purposes. They focus on introducing tempered fresh air into the building without necessarily providing additional heating or cooling.

MUA Maintenance and When to Replace: Like all building equipment, when there is a lack of or inadequate maintenance it will lead to problems. With an MUA, if there is an accumulation of dirt, debris, or pollutants in the filters, coils, or ductwork, it can hinder airflow and decrease efficiency or imbalances within the building. By giving due Condo News | FALL 2023

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attention to filter changes and maintenance, not only will you promote better air quality, but you will also enhance the efficiency of the system and prolong its lifespan.

Another common maintenance issue for the MUA is the malfunction of the motor or fan. The motor or fan is responsible for drawing in and distributing fresh air and it may encounter issues like motor failure, worn-out bearings, or damaged fan blades. This can result in reduced airflow, noisy operation, or complete system failure.

The life expectancy of the equipment can vary depending on several factors, including the quality of the unit, regular maintenance, environmental conditions, and usage patterns. On average, a well-maintained unit can be expected to last between 20-30 years. However, it is important to note that this is a general estimate and individual units may have longer or shorter lifespans based on specific circumstances. If the unit is reaching the end of its expected lifespan and requires frequent and costly repairs, it might be more cost-effective to replace it with a newer, more efficient model that will improve energy efficiency, air quality, and overall performance.

If there are significant changes in the building’s occupancy, layout, or ventilation needs, the existing makeup air unit may no longer be suitable. Replacing the unit with one that is properly sized and designed to meet the updated requirements is necessary to ensure adequate ventilation and compliance with regulations. The replacement of an MUA is a sizeable project for a corporation to undertake, costing upwards of thousands of dollars depending on the size of the equipment, so management will want to involve the Corporations engineer and possi-

If your existing unit lacks modern features or energysaving capabilities, upgrading to a newer model can provide improved performance, enhanced controls, and potential energy savings.

bly even the solicitor with the entire process to ensure the Corporation is fully protected throughout the replacement process.

MUA Advancements: Over time, advancements in technology such as energy recovery systems (heat recovery ventilators, (HRVs) and energy recovery ventilators (ERVs), are increasingly integrated into makeup air units and can lead to greater efficiency for the equipment. If your existing unit lacks modern features or energy-saving capabilities, upgrading to a newer model can provide improved performance, enhanced controls, and potential energy savings.

Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) can be beneficial additions to makeup air equipment in certain situations as they can help optimize energy consumption by adjusting the speed of the makeup air fan based on demand. By modulating the fan speed, VFDs enable the system to provide the necessary airflow

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while reducing energy usage during periods of lower demand. This can result in energy savings and lower operating costs.

However, it’s worth noting that the decision to install VFDs should be based on a careful analysis of factors such as energy savings potential, system requirements, and cost-effectiveness.

Consultation with your mechanical contractor is important as they can help you evaluate the specific needs of the building and determine whether VFDs are appropriate and beneficial for the makeup air equipment in question.

As with any piece of equipment at a property, managers should always consult and involve the contractor for the Corporation in decisions regarding the required maintenance, repair, and use of the equipment to ensure that the life of the equipment is maximized as much as possible.

To improperly use the equipment or not follow warranty or manufacturer’s guidelines will result in the Corporation potentially spending thousands on unwanted repairs or in the worst-case scenario, early replacement. After maintenance inspections are completed by the Corporation’s contractor take the time to review what was completed and ask the required questions to ensure that you as the manager understand what has been and needs to be completed. By following these important steps, it will protect you from future challenges.

Kelly Halkett is a former OLCM, RCM, working with Naylor Building Partnerships as a Condominium Operations Manager.

Kelly’s property management background helps her work directly with property managers bridging the gap between technical and operations and acting as a support for managers with their day-to-day HVAC needs.

Are you still stressing over holding your Annual General Meeting virtually?

Can’t find a service provider to host your meeting?

Are you a member of Golden Horseshoe Chapter – Canadian Condominium Institute?

Yes! THEN WE CAN HELP!!

The GHC-CCI will offer our technical Golden Horseshoe Chapter will supply expertise and the use of our Zoom the following: platform to host your AGM. You will • Zoom Pro platform (including polling still be required to prepare everything through Zoom) needed for your AGM: • Conference call number for those not • Powerpoint able to connect through zoom • Script • Any confidential voting requirements • Host through an online survey link • Collection of proxies • A technician to run the event in the • Minute taker background who will: • Polling/voting questions and choice of - set Up link and any recording answers requirements • Distribution of your AGM package - set Up polls • Provide GH with name/emails of partici- launch Polls and surveys pants - provide tech help/troubleshooting

This service is available for smaller condo’s as follows: 1-19 Units - $250 + HST 20 – 49 Units - $350 + HST 50 – 80 Units - $450 + HST This service is only being offered to small condominium units that are members of GHC-CCI and is on a first come, first served basis.

If you are interested in using our services please email us at admin@ghc-cci.ca with the date and time of your AGM, and we will get back to you with our availability.

Thank you for being a member of GHC-CCI! Condo News | FALL 2023

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FEATURE

Buried Services: Out of Sight, Not Out of Mind Tyler Brook, P.Eng.

Brown & Beatitie Ltd.

Matt Foster, P.Eng.

Brown & Beatitie Ltd.

O

ften when condominium owners think about long-term capital planning the big-ticket items spring to mind are some of the most visible: windows and doors, wall cladding, the asphalt pavement roadways, or maybe replacing that tired gazebo. But hidden below ground are some other high-value items: the Corporation’s buried services, including domestic water main systems and storm and sanitary sewers. These are important systems to be mindful of for long-term capital and technical planning.

WHAT ARE BURIED SERVICES? For this article, we focus on buried water management services, which can generally be thought of as systems that bring fresh potable water onto a site and then remove waste or storm water from a site.

Domestic water supply systems typically consist of buried pipes which connect to the city or municipal water mains, and deliver water to the building, or to the townhouse units throughout a site. Often these systems include a larger main which then has smaller service lines that take the water from the main to the individual units. If you compare a water main system to the anatomy of a tree, the main is the trunk, and the service lines are the branches. These systems can include other components such as water meters, pressure reducing valves,

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strainers, and backflow preventers, depending on the requirements of the municipality.

While it is often the local municipality’s responsibility to maintain water meters, these other components are usually the responsibility of the condominium to maintain and eventually replace. This maintenance may include yearly inspections as is the case for backflow preventers.

At sites which do not have interior mechanical rooms, typically townhouse sites, a below-grade concrete structure or chamber, is required to house these components such that they can be accessed and serviced.

Some municipalities may require these components (and their related chambers) to be installed retroactively if they were not installed at the time of original construction. A retroactive mandate like this can be sprung on a condominium without notice, creating a significant capital expenditure that the condominium has little time to save for.

There may be sections of buried pipe that are the responsibility of the individual unit owners where the smaller service pipes branch off to the individual units, although each corporation’s declaration should be consulted for such details of responsibility.

Buried sanitary sewer systems typically consist of buried pipes that connect to the building or individual units and transport sanitary waste off the site, connecting to the local sanitary sewer systems. These systems are primarily gravity-fed, but sometimes include pumps or ‘lift stations’ to supplement the transport off site.

Storm sewer systems consist of pipes that collect surface runoff water from landscaped and paved areas of a site via catch basins, and in some cases are connected to

There may be sections of buried pipe that are the responsibility of the individual unit owners where the smaller service pipes branch off to the individual units, although each corporation’s declaration should be consulted for such details of responsibility.

collect rainwater from roofs or water from foundation drainage systems and transport it off site to local stormwater sewer systems. In some cases, on-site stormwater retention tanks or ponds are used to manage the flow of stormwater during high volume rain periods.

As building science engineers we have always been aware of the need for maintenance and repairs of buried services. We often find that these essential systems tend not to experience significant issues for some time after original construction but do require increasingly significant repairs as sites continue to age, in our experience, once they hit about thirty or more years.

WHAT ISSUES CAN OCCUR? Typical issues at buried water mains include leaks and breaks.

Corrosion of the pipes or settlement of soil around the pipes can occur over time and lead to breakage or leakage, resulting in high water bills, or full water main breaks causing flooding and subgrade washout issues as well as interrupting the supply of water, that require costly emergency repairs. As water mains are under pressure, these effects are often experienced without warning and can be quite catastrophic when they occur.

With buried sewer systems, the issues are often more subdued and with indicators. Blockages can be caused by unit owner activities as well as cracking of pipes and subsequently roots growing inside pipes and blocking flow. Blockages can lead to other issues such as backing-up into suites at sanitary systems. At storm drainage systems it can cause poor site drainage leading to issues such as leakage through foundation walls or slip and fall concerns at ponding areas in winter. Older sewer pipe systems may have been constructed with clay pipes rather than pre-cast concrete or PVC which more modern systems use. Clay, generally a brittle and less robust material, can be more prone to breaks or collapses in the sewer pipes.

Another common issue is the pipes being unsupported within the ground due to leakage ‘washing away’ soil around the pipes or due to settlement of the bedding soil causing the pipes to sag, crack or break with sometimes drastic issues requiring emergency repairs or replacement. A localized break in the sewer pipe can also cause surrounding soil to infiltrate and be displaced by the pipe, where the sewer acts as a sort of ‘conduit’ that carries soil away. Soil displacement can lead to further pipe damage, Condo News | FALL 2023

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often undertaking a general removal and replacement approach of their full domestic water supply systems rather than ‘rolling the dice’ on another year with aging systems after years of ongoing water main breaks.

This type of approach is not taken lightly as it is often quite expensive, but if issues are ongoing a general replacement project can be the correct thing to do.

From a capital planning and a technical perspective, it makes sense to plan for eventual replacement of domestic water supply systems at the same time as replacement of site roadways and pavements as the pipes often run below these areas. This avoids costly repairs to pavement as part of a water main project since the roadways would be removed for replacement at the same time. There would likely be savings due to economies of scale as well, particularly in comparison with a local repair approach.

A challenge that Corporations sometimes encounter when faced with a major water main replacement project is lack of proper reserve funding. Given the somewhat unknown and concealed nature of buried systems, it can be difficult to accurately predict a time for general replacement. One site might experience frequent breaks or issues at the 30-year mark, while a similar neighbouring site might not have significant issues 50 years out.

Scheduling for periodic and escalating local repair allowances can help to hedge against the risk of requiring significant funds for a general replacement project, but also budgeting for eventual general replacement could be considered the most prudent approach. While this latter approach has not previously been considered or planned for at older sites in particular, we are increasing-

.... the governing Municipality can also retroactively mandate new infrastructure to be added to private water mains systems, such as installing a backflow preventer and a related chamber to house it.

ly finding that general replacement is no longer an exception, rather it is becoming commonplace.

With prudent and conservative capital planning, condominiums can be as prepared as possible by starting to reserve for a large buried-service replacement project from ‘day one’ such that over the long-term funds can be adequately allocated.

On the other side of the coin, at older sites where a more localized repair approach was previously adopted, and then a switch in strategy to general replacement was undertaken as the site aged and repairs escalated, are now experiencing financial challenges and tough decisions. In this latter case, significant funds may need to be allocated in relatively short order, through increases to reserve fund contribution levels, special assessments, taking on a loan, or some combination.

Further complicating reserve fund planning, as mentioned above, the governing Municipality can also retroactively mandate new infra-

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structure to be added to private water mains systems, such as installing a backflow preventer and a related chamber to house it. These mandates can be enforced with little notice, which can create an immediate shortfall in the current reserve fund plan. Working closely with your reserve fund engineer to form a solid plan is essential to getting this type of project completed.

To help develop the most accurate capital plan regarding buried services, repair logs should be maintained and that information shared with your capital planning engineer to be considered during updates to the reserve fund study. On a newer site it may seem easy to think of a large project of this nature as a problem for the future, however, to avoid future spikes in funding requirements the importance of planning ahead cannot be understated. The same principle can be applied to all long-term capital planning items.

WHATS INVOLVED IN REPLACEMENT? Replacement of buried infrastructure is often completed in one of two different ways.

Firstly, would be to leave the existing infrastructure in place (and servicing the site), while a new system is installed essentially parallel to the existing. Once the new system installation is complete, it is commissioned and a ‘change over’ is completed at all the connection points. This involves connecting the ends of the new main to the existing City connection and tie-ins to any branch or service lines. The original service is then decommissioned which usually involves filling it with grout to prevent it from collapsing or causing wash-out in the future.

The benefit of this method is that

which in turn can lead to further soil displacement, creating a potential cyclical issue. Above grade, this soil displacement can lead to the formation of “sinkholes” or damage to other infrastructure that might be located above (such as watermains, gas lines, electrical conduits, etc.).

Similar soil displacement issues can happen around catch basins if the pre-cast ‘moduloc’ rings supporting metal grates are damaged.

HOW TO ASSESS? Assessment of buried systems is somewhat limited by the concealed nature of being located below ground, however, is important and available. Assessment can help uncover potential issues or provide a preliminary condition evaluation to develop maintenance regimes to keep systems functioning well.

Assessment of sewer systems can be done via camera scoping of the sewer pipe systems to look for blockages, cracks, low spots in the pipes or other issues. This video camera scoping can be completed during periodic flushing or cleaning of sewer systems as typically contractors doing this work offer these services. During flushing or camera scoping the sewers are accessed via manholes, catch basins, or other clean-out locations.

Assessment of domestic water supply systems is not so straightforward as the pipes are within a “closed” system that are under high water pressure. A water main does not have features that make it readily accessible such as manholes or clean-outs that sewer systems have, so a camera scope is not practical to complete. One form of assessment for domestic water supply systems is digging test pits to expose sections of the pipe for visual assessment.

as reviewing the inside condition of the pipe where possible.

It is prudent to plan for repairs as a site ages to help offset the often sudden or somewhat unknown nature of failures to these buried and concealed systems.

Typically, the results of this type of assessment are fairly limited as a test pit only shows one section of the pipe and may not be representative of overall conditions. The cost of conducting a test pit to gain potentially limited results should also be carefully considered. Assessment can and should be completed at times when localized repairs are being completed. When a water main break is being repaired, the opportunity should be taken to assess the exposed portion of remaining pipe within the repair excavation as well

HOW TO PLAN? Corporations’ reserve fund studies should include consideration for repairs and often replacement of buried services. Typically, significant repairs are not required at sites until perhaps the 20 or 30-year mark, although of course will vary from site to site based on initial installation and maintenance performed over the years. As repairs start to become necessary, they often occur at a greater rate and cost than in earlier years. It is prudent to plan for repairs as a site ages to help offset the often sudden or somewhat unknown nature of failures to these buried and concealed systems. Consideration should also be given to increasing allowances for repairs further as sites age. Since reserve fund studies are updated relatively frequently (every 3 years), any issues at these systems can be taken into account and adjustments made to ongoing or future allowances for repairs.

While planning for repair allowances is prudent, consideration should in particular be given to planning for eventual full or significant replacement of domestic water main systems, especially at townhouse sites which usually have long lengths of piping. There can come a time when water main breaks and related maintenance become too frequent or expensive such that a more general replacement approach becomes warranted for both the financial stability of a Corporation as well as the convenience of reliable water supply at the site.

As capital planning engineers we have observed a trend in recent years towards Corporations more Continued on page 43 Condo News | FALL 2023

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significant cost is not incurred to put temporary infrastructure in place.

The difficulty with this approach is that installing a new system parallel to the existing may be challenging depending on the clearances to existing infrastructure that is to remain.

For installation of new water mains, this includes maintaining proper clearances from sewer pipes, manholes, catch basins, etc. On sites with limited spaces this can be especially challenging.

The second approach involves installing temporary bypass services.

Afterwards, the existing service is removed, and the new service is installed in generally the same location/layout. The ‘cons’ of this method are that it can be costly to set up.

For water main replacements, temporary bypass installation involves installing pipes above grade that run across lawns, sidewalks, roads, etc.

At vehicle or pedestrian crossings, temporary ramps or covers must be installed over the pipes to protect them. This creates additional inconvenience and potential site hazards for residents, which is usually otherwise minimized with the first approach mentioned above. The benefit of this approach is that, as long as the original pipe was installed with proper clearances, the installation/ layout of the new pipe is a more straightforward procedure and there is no need to decommission the old pipes as they are removed.

It should be appreciated that regardless of the approach taken, there will be site and service disruptions, which cannot be avoided, which residents should be made aware of before a project starts to help set related expectations.

While keeping a condominium’s buried services in good repair may

not be the flashiest item on a Corporation’s to-do list, it certainly is one of the important ones. Out of sight should not be out of mind.

Tyler Brook is a Senior Capital Planning Engineer at Brown & Beattie Ltd. responsible for the technical assessment and financial planning analysis involved in conducting and overseeing countless Reserve Fund Studies and Performance Audits throughout the GTA and southwestern Ontario.

Matt Foster is a Managing Engineer with the Construction Review and Contract Administration team at Brown & Beattie Ltd. Matt primarily services GTA West including Peel, Halton, and Hamilton Regions.

Matt is responsible for preparing technical specifications, and the subsequent review of the execution for related building envelope and infrastructure restoration projects.

Brown & Beattie Ltd. provides professional services and expertise specializing in building maintenance, restoration, improvement and sustainability by listening to client objectives and clearly explaining technical issues. We assist our clients in achieving useable plans and sensible results.

RJC Engineers

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Tool Talk Videos

Tool Talk The mandate for the Professional Partners Committee has always been to promote and grow a network of trusted professionals for the benefit of all CCI members. To that end much of our focus has been organizing networking events where we bring together our business partners with our CCI members. The majority of these events are planned as educational seminars where our professionals present on a wide variety of topics that the Committee feels will benefit our membership.

The Tool Talk series of videos will provide some behind the scenes views of our professionals to highlight a few of the many services our experts provide to their condo clients. The idea is for these short videos (3 to 4 minutes each), to give our membership a behind the scenes look at our experts at work. Many of these clips will be a view of activities/operations which may never have been seen/witnessed by our members before.

Some of the first videos will focus on engineering, contracting and emergency/ disaster response.

The video clips will be uploaded to the CCI Golden Horseshoe website for easy viewing access and a library of multiple topics/insights will be created. We hope the clips will provide a fun and interesting look “behind the curtain” with our professionals while also educating the viewers on the methods, materials, operations utilized to inspect, resolve and repair typical problems being faced by condominiums within our community.

You can review our current library of videos here:

View Tool Talk Videos As always, the committee welcomes input from our members. If anyone has a suggestion for one of our videos, please feel free to reach out to us at admin@cci-ghc.ca.

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FEATURE

John De Vellis

B.A., LL.B., Qualified Arbitrator (Q. Arb.) Shibley Righton LLP

Beware: Your “Independent Contractor” May be an Employee Often in our practice we receive questions from clients about issues with contractors. In some cases, we discover that the person the client had been treating as an “independent contractor” is in fact an employee.

Mislabeling someone as an independent contractor can have significant legal implications and employers should understand the differences between an employee and an independent contractor.

The most important point to understand is that the label (what the parties call their relationship) does not matter. The fact the person is called an independent contractor, or even has a contract to that effect, is not relevant. What matters is the substance of the relationship between the parties. The courts, Ministry of Labour, Canada Revenue Agency and other relevant regulatory bodies all use the

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following four-part test to determine whether someone is an employee: 1. Degree of control: a hallmark of an employment relationship is the party paying the remuneration has direct control over how the person does their work, the hours of work and the place of work.

2. Number of clients: A person who works full-time in your premises is more likely to be an employee than an independent contractor.

source deductions/remittances are made. If the Canada Revenue Agency later determines that the person was an employee all along, it may impose a penalty against the employer for failing to withhold and remit those payments. The impact of this can be substantial if an employee has been mischaracterized as an independent contractor for a long period of time. l

3. Degree of risk: a true independent contractor would have a chance to earn a profit from the enterprise and a risk of loss. A person who is paid at a set hourly rate regardless of the output, for example, is likely not an independent contractor.

4. Supply of tools of the trade: another hallmark of an independent contractor is whether the person is required to supply tools or other equipment. A person who shows up for work and uses capital equipment supplied by the payer is more likely to be an employee.

As well, if the person was not enrolled and becomes injured, WSIB may require the employer to pay all of the workers’ compensation benefits owed to the injured worker (for lost income and medical expenses). This may result in significant liability in the case of a serious injury. As well, most liability insurance policies will not cover liability for injuries for someone who is determined to be an employee.

Implications for Misclassifying an Employee as an Independent Contractor

There are a number of potential negative consequences for employers who misclassify someone as an independent contractor: l

Statutory deductions: employers are required to deduct from an employee’s salary and remit to the relevant department income tax and payroll taxes such as Employment Insurance and Canada Pension Plan premiums. In an independent contractor scenario that does not happen, and no

Workplace Safety and Insurance (workers compensation): most employers who employ one or more employees must pay workers’ compensation insurance premiums for the employee (known in Ontario as “WSIB”Workplace Safety and Insurance Board- premiums). The employer may face penalties if the person is not enrolled and is later found to be an employee.

In essence, if the person is improperly not enrolled with workers’ compensation (WSIB), the employer essentially becomes the person’s insurer and may be liable to the person in the case of a workplace injury. l

ful dismissal even if the parties had an “independent contractor” contract allowing the payer to terminate on, say, 60 days’ notice.

The reason is there are specific requirements for employment contracts to be enforceable.

While a properly worded employment contract can limit an employee’s entitlement to severance pay on termination, the parties would not have such a contract if the worker had been improperly treated as an independent contractor.

Often the distinction between an employee and independent contractor is not clear, and many relationships may fall into a grey area.

However, because of the potentially significant legal implications of misclassifying someone, it is best to get legal advice in respect of any staff member who regularly does work for your condominium corporation.

John De Vellis’ multi-faceted practice includes condominium law, commercial litigation, and employment law. As a member of Shibley Righton LLP’s condominium law group, John acts for condominium corporations throughout south and southwestern Ontario on all aspects of condominium law including compliance and governance issues, general litigation including oppression applications, employment and human rights disputes, construction deficiency issues, arbitration of shared facilities disputes, and commercial matters such as contract review and drafting and general governance issues.

John also holds a Q. Arb. (Qualified Arbitrator) designation.

Severance Pay: an “independent contractor” who is found to be an employee may be owed pay in lieu of notice for wrongCondo News | FALL 2023

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APPLICATIONS FOR THE LCCI DESIGNATION ARE NOW OPEN

CCI’s new designation, to recognize its members from any profession or trade who have and continue to contribute knowledge and expertise to CCI and the condominium industry.

Apply now!

LCCI Designation The LCCI designation is open to any CCI member who provides goods and/or services, through annual employment time and volunteer time, to or within the condominium/strata/copropriété industry. The designation is open to any particular profession or trade.

LCCI Application Process Step 1 – Apply: Gather the information for the registration form (eligibility criteria): A. An individual or professional member of CCI in good standing; B. Minimum of three (3) years as an individual or professional member of CCI immediately prior to the date of application; C. Minimum of three (3) years’ service to the condominium industry immediately prior to the date of application. This criterion will be satisfied where an individual shows that they have provided goods and/or services, through annual employment time and volunteer time to or within the condominium industry; D. Provide at least two (2) letters of reference/endorsement from a CCI member having at least five (5) years of membership in CCI; and E. Provide an executed declaration that the candidate will comply with the CCI Code of Ethics.

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FEATURE

“Top Tip” – Fall Readiness Jeremy Nixon P.Eng., BSS

Brown & Beattie Ltd.

Fall is here in a flash. And just like that it is time to get our buildings ready for winter. We are hopefully close to wrapping up our various projects or at least getting them to a good stopping point until they resume in the spring. From a building and property perspective, there are many small, routine things that if done now can save time, headaches, and money later.

An obvious one is roofing, which I won’t actually cover here. My colleague, Shawn Trudel, wrote an excellent Top Tip on Roof Health that appeared in the Spring, 2023 edition, which can be separately referred to. It covers an excellent routine that can apply to both spring and fall. This Top Tip will look at other building and property areas that we can look to be similarly proactive.

Like roofing, our site and garage drainage systems should be cleared of all the guck that accumulates. Get after those catch basins, garage roof drains, and suspended slab drains. Nothing is worse than those systems already being partially clogged, which in winter can lead to dangerous icing and with it some of those

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potentially serious or liable slip and falls. On the technical side, that debris and ice accumulation can damage and/or reduce the life cycle of related systems.

Properly winterized hose bibs. Failing to do so can cause them to leak or burst, potentially causing thousands of dollars in unnecessary damages and insurance claims!

Properly winterized hose bibs. Failing to do so can cause them to leak or burst, potentially causing thousands of dollars in unnecessary damages and insurance claims!

Test the operation of any snow melting systems whether at ramps and stairwells, eavestroughing and eaves, or tracing cables for drains and piping.

Carry out as-needed, proactive tree maintenance to avoid damage during inevitable winter snow, wind, and ice storms. This type of forward thinking is in part for tree health, but also that those branches and limbs can often cause other property damages when they detach and fall.

By the time this piece is published, pools and water features

should have been properly shut down and winterized. If they haven’t, best get on it!

Think about mechanical turnovers. Again, the cooling-to-heating switchover has likely been done by now. However you may want your HVAC mechanics to do a once over to potentially identify any routine or proactive maintenance that gives the systems a better probability of uneventful operation through the winter, and in the case of cooling systems, easy start-up again in spring.

Chimney flues and vents should be cleaned and maintained as necessary. Ensure that carbon monoxide sensors and emergency lights are fully operational (this would be good seasonally, really).

Back to the site, look out for heaved walkways that could be further trip and slip hazards. Get them replaced now if possible. Loose railings should also be looked after as they would be increasingly relied on to assist in egress during inclement weather.

Window Condensation is an increasing likelihood, which is most frequently a product of in-suite humidity that can be largely controlled by some simple education and routine maintenance.

• Make sure ducts are clear and exhaust fans operate well, then use them during high humidity creating activities such as cooking, laundering, and hygiene.

• Use a dehumidifier, if needed, and conversely don’t use humidifiers (even though there is sometimes temptation to for comfort). If you do use them, use them knowing that they can be detrimental from a condensation perspective, while improving personal

52 GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE

comfort.

• Maintain good air circulation in general.

• During extreme periods, operable windows could be slightly opened as a temporary humidity balancing ‘hack’ of sorts.

Close the windows immediately thereafter, understanding that this approach is not particularly energy friendly.

Some acceptance that condensation many not be completely eliminated, rather some practical balance needs to be struck.

Remember that a little TLC on all of these systems can go a long way to extending their useful lives, while reducing headaches, and saving money.

Jeremy Nixon, P.Eng., BSS is the Vice President at Brown & Beattie Ltd., a building science engineering firm dedicated to providing clear and sensible building improvement, maintenance, and repair planning advice by listening to clients’ objectives. Mr. Nixon is licensed with Professional Engineers Ontario (PEO) and holds a Building Science Specialist (BSS) designation.

Condo News | FALL 2023

53

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GOLDEN HORSESHOE CHAPTER OF THE CANADIAN CONDOMINIUM INSTITUTE Box 37, Burlington, Ontario L7R 3X8 Tel: 905-631-0124 / Toll Free 1-844-631-0124 Fax: 416-491-1670 • Email admin@cci-ghc.ca