October 2019
Condominium Authority of Ontario Year Two Report Card, September 2019, was our most heavily read article this year. Here is one reader’s comments.
You rate the CAO and, in general, your reviews are fair BUT you say:
“Mandatory forms were viewed favourably despite poor communication and implementation. One year later it was expected that deficiencies be resolved. Today, forms remain inaccessible to most and unnecessarily difficult to complete.”
Though CAO could, and maybe should, advocate for and seek ‘user input’ on the forms it is not fair to blame them for their complexity. The Forms are created under the Regulations and are the responsibility of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. CAO is NOT responsible for the Forms.
I was part of a group within CAI that commented at great length on the Forms when they first came out and some were revised – accepting many but not all of our suggestions. The Ministry has made no Form revisions since the Doug Ford government was elected and emails to our contacts at the Ministry have gone unanswered. The Forms are hard to access; they are available along with all (?) other government Forms on their “Forms Website” – it is certainly not easy to access and extremely unfriendly but that problem affects ALL Ontario government forms (particularly the newer ones that have things like drop-down menus). A further problem with the Forms is that in some cases a clarification requires the underlying Regulation to be clarified and changes to Regulations require that they have a public comment period and that the Minister signs-off on them
D. Crawford
Toronto Condo News’ response
Toronto Condo News is addressing the system as it exists. The current system does not work nor does it appear accountable to those paying for it.
- The former provincial government chose to establish CAO and have condo owners pay for it through a monthly tax on condo owners rather than through general revenues. Our opinion is that this approach should require CAO to be responsive to those who fund it and not a vehicle for political manipulation or obfuscation.
- The current provincial government has chosen not to finish implementation of changes to the Condo Act and also retain the direct tax on condo owners. It appears they are comfortable with the current approach.
- Your comments refer to form revisions and an artificial system that creates convoluted forms then does nothing about them. This could be addressed if there was a desire to do so. Furthermore, the choice of technology should not create confusion and difficulty if the intent is to make forms accessible and support those funding the system.
