Here’s an update from Bob Gardiner on Toronto’s most notorious workplace catastrophe in recent history. 

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Four migrant workers died and another suffered a critical injury when a swing stage scaffold on the 13th floor of a Kipling Avenue apartment building they were on while repairing a balcony collapsed on Christmas Eve, 2009. The swing stage broke into two pieces when a seventh worker attempted to step onto it. Thirty Occupational Health and Safety Act (OHSA) charges were laid against Metron Construction Corporation, 16 charges against a senior manager and eight charges against a supervisor. Swing “N” Scaff Inc., which supplied the work platform faces four charges and its director faces three charges, all under the OHSA.

In addition, Metron Construction Corporation and three company officials have each been charged with criminal negligence causing bodily harm and four counts of criminal negligence causing death, pursuant to s. 217.1 (the Bill C-45 amendments to the Criminal Code).

Eight OHSA orders (including some dealing with swing stages) had been issued to Metron Construction at that job site in the prior two months.

None of the five cases against corporations and individuals subject to such criminal charges have proceeded to trial. Some critics maintain that the excessive focus on criminal blame does not promote proactive strategies to prevent workplace injuries.

By now, every condominium director and manager must be aware of his or her personal liability to take every reasonable measure in the circumstances to protect the health and safety of workers upon a worksite. Condos should take care to disclose any hazardous products or circumstances on site and to negotiate appropriate OHSA clauses in construction contracts. An Occupational Health and Safety Policy is mandatory, as is a Workplace Violence and Harassment Policy, Risk Assessment and Program.

If the unit owners at your condo are sick and tired of paying municipal taxes on the same basis as single family houses and not receiving commensurate local services, your corporation needs to join Canadian Condominium Institute in order to do something about it.

Despite the fact that there are over 6,000 condominium corporations in Ontario which house hundreds of thousands of voters, politicians of all levels and stripes pay little heed to the plight of the condo dwellers.  This is primarily because any individual condominium holds little clout or influence.  Only by banding together can meaningful change be achieved.

CCI and some of its Ontario chapters have made impressive inroads on the topic of fair municipal taxation in the past year and have built upon the hard work of a small group of condo directors in Markham who got the attention of local council.  We featured a guest post on that group’s progress, here.

Through strength in numbers and the volunteer efforts of condo directors and professionals and the hardworking executive at the various chapters, CCI’s efforts are reaching a point of critical mass. To continue this good work, it’s vital that a strong front be presented to make the case for sweeping changes province-wide to address the inequities of the current municipal tax regime and to achieve fairness for condo owner taxpayers.

Take action today.  Get your condo corporation to join your local CCI chapter.

Condo corporation members of the CCI Toronto Chapter can (and should!) attend a special seminar just prior to the chapter’s annual general meeting on November 25, 2010.   Details below. Events like this may be taking place across the province in coming months.

Continue Reading Join CCI in the fight for fair taxation of condo units

Is your condo corporation interested in achieving greater energy savings?

If so, check out the seminars and materials available for condo corporations in Toronto through the "TowerWise" program offered by the Toronto Atmospheric Fund, an agency of the City.

Read the news release after the jump.

Continue Reading City offers energy conservation assistance

With Halloween behind us and Christmas preparations about to begin, it’s time to highlight some of the most notable blog posts on condo-related issues for the past two months.

South of the border, the foreclosure crisis is front and centre. Homeowners plead for relief from their debts, politicians in full election mode speak of foreclosure moratoriums, and commentators ponder the impact of such plans on the housing market. All the while, condos and HOAs caught in the squeeze are looking for help. The law bloggers are stepping up to help by providing timely insight and expertise. Here’s a sampling:

In other condo-related news . . . 

Continue Reading Best of the blogosphere for September/October 2010

Attendees at last week’s spectacular ACMO/CCI-T Condominium Conference received in their delegate bag a complimentary copy of the Conference Edition of Gardiner Miller Arnold’s Condo Alert! newsletter. 

In response to popular demand, we’re now releasing this special edition to the public.  

Topics include:

  • PIPEDA compliance
  • Booting out owners for extreme behaviour
  • Prostitution laws
  • Parallel proceedings under Condo Act and Human Rights Code
  • Special bonus feature: The coolest condo-related Wordle ever seen!

Click the picture at right or this link to view/download the pdf version for yourself or to share with others.

There has been plenty of interesting condo-related stuff in the Twittersphere from September 30 to November 2, 2010.

To help time-starved condo professionals find and enjoy the best stuff quickly, we have organized the tweets using the following handy categories:

  • Court/Tribunal Decisions
  • Tips & Cool Stuff
  • News / Commentary — Ontario
  • News / Commentary — Canada
  • News / Commentary — International
  • GMA in the News

For real-time updates, follow me on Twitter.

Here we go.

Court/Tribunal Decisions

ONSC orders condo unit owner to scale back oversize deck, nixes owners’ claim for oppression remedy: http://bit.ly/aDvf5l

ABQB: Construction lender not liable for building deficiencies. Lawsuit by condo vs. developer’s bank dismissed: http://bit.ly/aK3FIS

ONHRT to hear case re scooter parking after condo corp fails to respond and is deemed to admit allegations: http://bit.ly/cK63tc #Baffling

ABCA: Evicting condo unit owners is an extraordinary remedy, to be granted only when other incremental remedies fail: http://bit.ly/cX532i

Supreme Ct. of Canada finds insurance coverage for construction defect claims:    http://bit.ly/cBQ2iU

ONSC: Contractor entitled to defence by insurer in construction deficiency claim brought by condo corporation: http://bit.ly/9o68bD

ONSC allows buyer to terminate purchase of new #condo unit when developer (Trump) fails to deliver unit on time: http://bit.ly/ag3Uk8 http://bit.ly/hhJKCh

ONSC approves settlement of fraud claims vs. developer’s principals in class action over 2002 condo turnover: http://bit.ly/ag3Uk8

Continue Reading Microblog posts to 11/2/2010

Don’t miss the 14th Annual CCI-T/ACMO Condominium Conference this Friday and Saturday (November 5-6, 2010) at the Hilton Suites Toronto/Markham.  

In addition to the excellent educational seminars and trade show, this important national event features the annual general meeting of the Canadian Condominium Institute and its national awards banquet dinner.  Condo unit owners, directors, managers and professionals from coast to coast will be on hand.

I am excited to be speaking on how to build responsible digital communities.  Be sure to attend this super session to find out how to make best use of social media tools and avoid pitfalls and traps while enhancing communication at your condo.

Mark Arnold is moderating a panel on condo mediation and arbitration in human rights disputes, which is becoming an increasingly hot topic.

Bob Gardiner will be moderating the ever-popular Ask the Experts panel on Saturday afternoon.

Saturday’s keynote speaker is Major-General (Ret.) Lewis Mackenzie, one of our country’s most notable peacekeepers. Not to be missed.

Gardiner Miller Arnold is proud to be a Silver sponsor of the conference once again, and all of us from GMA will be there. Take a moment to stop any of us and say hello! If you don’t know us by sight, see our mugshots here so that you will recognize us. We look forward to meeting you.

The details for Mark’s program and mine are below, but visit www.condoconference.ca to view the full conference program, exhibitors list and registration details.

See you there!

Continue Reading See you at the condo conference!

In late July, the Ontario Government launched a survey to learn about the experiences of condominium unit owners across the province. This survey will likely have a significant impact on whether or not the government considers reforms to the Condominium Act.

The survey covers a broad range of condo issues, including:

  • Disclosure before Purchase
  • Governance / Decision making
  • Repairs and Maintenance
  • Reserve Funds & Planning
  • Dispute Resolution / Interaction with Board
  • Owners’ knowledge of Condo Act

These are all issues with which every condo owner has at least some experience. To be sure, more than 3,100 owners have reportedly completed the survey to date.

In addition to giving owners the chance to air their beefs, the survey also offers a number of educational tidbits designed to clear up common misconceptions shared by unit owners. This feature alone makes the survey a worthwhile exercise for owners, even those that don’t have strong feelings about condo living.

The survey closes on October 31, so this is the final opportunity to participate and help government determine if legislative reform is required. You can participate online here or by telephone.

Continue Reading Last call for government survey of condo owners

Once every six blue moons, Tarion proposes a change to the Ontario New Home Warranty Plan that actually benefits purchasers of new homes without giving any kind of benefit to homebuilders or developers. This is one of those momentous, rare occasions.

In mid-October 2010, Tarion gave notice of its proposal to amend its regulations to combat the rather disreputable practice of a small number of condo developers that charge purchasers the [over]estimated municipal taxes or development charges for new units without refunding the difference if a lesser amount was actually paid to the municipality. This practice of developers pocketing the difference was described months ago in the regular newspaper column of Toronto real estate lawyer Bob Aaron. See his articles here and here. He called for some change to be made.

Luckily, Mr. Aaron is a member of the board of the Tarion Warranty Corporation and it seems that he has successfully persuaded Tarion to do something about this!

In the notice of the proposed amendment to its regulation, Tarion summarized the measure as follows:

Tarion would like to ensure that builders are not including charges as adjustments to the purchase price of a new home that have not actually been incurred by the builder. This amendment to the regulation will make the restriction of these charges a new term and condition of builder registration.

The actual proposed wording of the prohibition to be added to Tarion’s regulation is as follows:

The registrant shall not charge as an adjustment or readjustment to the purchase price of a home, any amount as reimbursement for a sum payable to a third party unless and to the extent such sum is ultimately paid to such third party.

This change, if passed, should persuade those few bad apple developers to stop the unfair practice of pocketing the difference between what they collect from purchasers and what they remit to municipalities or others. Indeed, a developer found in breach of this provision stands to lose their Tarion registration. While the proposed change does not provide a direct way for consumers to recover the difference, it should allow purchasers a certain amount of clout when negotiating with developers. It may also give rise to a legal right to sue a developer for that difference in court if need be.

Public input is being received until November 25, 2010. Comments can be submitted electronically through the Regulatory Registry on the ServiceOntario website.  Give your two cents today. 

Hats off to Bob Aaron and Tarion for taking this step to enhance consumer protection!

In addition to the court decisions and newsy items we posted earlier this week, some great tips were posted over the summer that should be of interest to condo property managers, directors and unit owners and prospective condo purchasers.  With such a rich and wide variety of sources, the below items just start to scratch the surface.

Tips and resources for property managers and condo boards

RT @condobusiness Video: Not enough $$ to cover repairs? Genivar and Morrison Financial provide options for reserve fund shortfalls http://bit.ly/b3qg3g #condo

Good article on how to welcome new board members http://bit.ly/aggWIC (via New England Condo mag)

No prob with the rules – it’s how you enforce! RT @Buildium: Hey property managers — Check out Top 7 Insane HOA rules! http://bit.ly/b6SWbp

RT @habitatmag Co-op / Condo Boards: What are the 9 things every new-resident welcome package should include? Find out now… http://tinyurl.com/2dlzg3l

Local property managers speak at roundtable discussion on condo security:    http://bit.ly/cbTm9N    (Canadian Security Magazine)

RT @OntMinLabour Employers! A new online tool for you: Interactive Employer Workbook.  http://tinyurl.com/2wppt94

Shattering common myths about workplace entitlements in Ontario – http://bit.ly/9DiqAm

Condo boards should budget accordingly – Steep Increases Forecast for Ontario Electricity Prices    http://bit.ly/9yyxoK

RT @hoamgtcom: When searching for new property management how to find the Best (Not Necessarily the Cheapest) Management Company http://bit.ly/cGd6Qb

Continue Reading Microblog posts to 9/30/2010 – Tips/Cool Stuff