Legislative Committee Update
By Chair: Armand Conant
Minister’s Announcement July 25, 2017.
The last few months have been a whirl- wind of activity for the Legislative Committee. The government’s actions culminated in the very important public announcements by the Minister of Government and Consumer Services (Hon. Tracy MacCharles) on July 25, 2017. Draft regulations relating to a portion of the reforms to the Condominium Act, 1998 (parts of the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 - Bill 106) were circulated in the early spring for public comment. These regulations focused only on governance matters and were broken down into four themes or topics. Previous articles in CondoVoice have reviewed these in-depth.
The legislative committee was active in reviewing these draft regulations, attend- ing meetings and submitting comments and suggestions to the government. Ear- lier this summer, these regulations were finalized and approved by Cabinet. We are now awaiting the formal proclamation of those portions of the legislation that correlate to these regulations. We are also waiting to see what the prescribed or regulated forms will be, and once published, our Committee, with other stakeholders, will review them and send any comments to the Ministry.
The key aspects of the Minister’s announcement on July 25 were: (a) Licensing of managers will formally commence on November 1, 2017. At the same time, the government will formally designate the Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario (CMRAO) as an administrative authority, and it will open its doors.
(b) The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) will be formally designated as an administrative authority on September 1st and will open its doors open its doors – for limited services at the outset. The types and breadth of services to be provided by the CAO will evolve over time. A more complete description of the CAO is in an article in this issue of CondoVoice.
(c) The mandatory training of directors will commence on November 1, 2017 (for those elected, re-elected or ap- pointed after November 1st).
(d) The Condominium Authority Tribunal (CAT), which will be the largest part of the CAO, will commence on November 1st – solely for disputes related to corporate records and access to them (Sec. 55 claims).
(e) The assessment or fee to fund the CAO will be in the range of $12 per year per voting or primary condominium unit (excludes parking and locker units). The fee will be invoiced to the condo corporation, to be treated as a common expense.
The first invoice will be sent out later this year for payment for the period September 1, 2017 to March 31, 2018. Thereafter, the billing will be based on the CAO’s fiscal year of April 1st to March 31st. CCI and its Legislative Committee strongly recommend every corporation to start budgeting for this fee/assessment, if you haven’t done so already.
So, some of the legislative reforms along with the licensing of mangers are finally becoming a reality. Much more work lies ahead for the government and our Legislative Committee, so stay tuned!
First published in Condovoice Fall 2017