Although their efforts may not be visible to the public, the government is hard at work at drafting the regulations for Bill 106 — which encompasses the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 and the Condominium Management Services Act, 2015. It is hoped that the regulations will be in place by mid to late 2017, Toronto condominium lawyer Armand Conant says in CondoBusiness.
As CondoBusiness reports, the Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 — passed late last year — is set to reform the existing Condominium Act and introduce the Condominium Management Services Act, 2015.
The existing Condominium Act, 1998 will remain in force until the new Act is proclaimed into force — before that happens, the government needs to finalize the accompanying regulations and establish two administrative authorities, says the article.
The Condominium Authority of Ontario (CAO) will provide public education, maintain a registry of the province’s 10,000 condominium corporations and administer a tribunal tasked with settling common disputes, primarily between condominium corporations and owners. The Condominium Management Regulatory Authority of Ontario (CMRAO) will be responsible for licensing and regulating condominium managers and management companies.
Conant, partner and head of the condominium law group at Shibley Righton LLP, has been appointed a founding/first director of the CAO and he also sat on the expert panel for the Condominium Act review.
He recently told attendees at the ACMO/CCI-T Condo Conference in Toronto that the regulations will spell out the many “prescribed requirements” referenced in the legislation, which is designed to make future reforms easier, CondoBusiness reports.
“We hope — we don’t have any guarantees, but we’re all working very hard — that the regs will be coming out over the next number of months for our review,” said Conant.
“All stakeholders, everybody in the industry, will be invited to participate, and if everything works well, it will be law by hopefully the end of the summer or fall of 2017,” he added.
As CondoBusiness reports, Conant also told attendees that it is hoped there will be a phasing in of some aspects of the legislation and regulations and thus parts of the new legislation become law earlier.
Conant noted that the CAO’s dispute resolution services could include a comprehensive online tool, similar to systems in jurisdictions such as B.C.
Interested parties should watch for the release of the regulations, he said, as well as the launch of the CAO and CMRAO websites.