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Summary of Draft Regulations under the Condominium Act, 1998 – Meetings and Voting

March 24, 2017 | James Davidson,

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Condominium, Condominium Act, Meetings, Voting
As we noted in a previous blog, the province has published the Proposed Regulations and a Summary of the first phase of the proposed new Regulations under the Condominium Act, 1998, as amended (“The Amended Act”). This is the fourth in a series of blogs that we will be preparing in relation to the proposed changes.

In this Blog No. 4, I explore what the Summary has to say about Changes to Meetings and Voting.

The Summary respecting the proposed new Regulations refers to some Changes to Meetings and Voting.   In the case of owners’ meetings, the changes will generally apply to meetings held at least 40 days after the Regulations come into force (unless the notice of meeting is sent before the Regulations come into force).

[Note: The target date for the Regulations to come into force appears to be July 1, 2017.]

Here are some of the highlights.

New Quorum Requirements for Meetings of Owners

Currently, the quorum requirement for meetings of the owners is the owners of 25% of the units (unless the corporation has passed a by-law to increase the quorum requirement to 33 1/3%).

Under the proposed Regulations, quorum for the third attempt to hold a meeting will be reduced to 15% for the following types of meetings:

  • AGMs
  • Turnover Meetings
  • Any meeting to appoint a new Auditor
  • Any meeting to elect Directors

Secret Voting

Condominiums will be deemed to have a standard by-law provision stating that owners voting by ballot, by proxy or by telephonic or electronic means must always be permitted to vote secretly – without revealing their names or unit numbers. (This standard by-law provision can only be amended after turnover.)

Recorded Vote

The Regulations will confirm the meaning of a “recorded vote” (also defined under the amendments to the Act).

Proxies

There will be a mandatory proxy form to be contained in the new Regulations.

By-law Voting

The required vote to confirm certain NEW types of by-laws will be reduced to an ordinary vote – ie. a majority of the votes cast with a quorum of units represented (either in person or by proxy) at the meeting.  The Summary says that this reduced voting requirement will apply to By-laws

  1. To add information to be included in a periodic information certificate, an information certificate update or a new owner information certificate.
  2. To specify more frequent time periods for sending a periodic information certificate.
  3. To specify additional disclosure obligations under subsection 29 (1) (f) and 29 (2) (f) of the Condominium Act, and any related time periods for those additional obligations.
  4. To govern the manner in which required information is presented at a meeting of owners, and identifying additional material to place before the owners at the meeting.
  5. To govern the manner in which an individual may notify the board under clause 45.1 (1) (a) of the act, and the manner in which an owner may provide material to the board under clause 45.1 (1) (b) of the act.
  6. To govern additional materials that are to be included in a preliminary notice or notice of meeting sent by the condominium corporation.
  7. To specify the method of electronic communication the condominium corporation can use in relation to communication by the corporation under the Condominium Act and the accompanying regulations.
  8. To govern the manner in which an owner may be present at a meeting of owners or represented by proxy.
  9. To allow for voting by telephonic or electronic means under s. 52(1)(b)(iii) of the Condominium Act.
  10. To specify additional records that must be maintained and to increase required retention periods.

Board Meetings by Teleconference

Boards will be entitled to hold Board Meetings by teleconference or other method of concurrent communication.

Stay tuned for our next blog in this series about the new Regulations.