July 16 FOLA Real Estate Update
In FOLA’s lastest update there are a couple organizations seeking comments, the Ministry of the Attorney General is requesting comments on their Virtual Commissioning regulatory frame (see our earlier blog post) and Tarion is looking for input on their consumer protection initiatives.
Consultation re: Virtual Commissioning Regulations
Have your say! The Ministry of the Attorney General is accepting comments on its proposal to establish a regulatory framework that enables virtual acts of commissioning. The proposal was posted on July 14, 2020 and comments are due by July 22, 2020. Further details are available here.
The consultation window is very short, so we encourage anyone who is interested in providing comments to do so before the deadline.
Planning Act Amendments
We regularly receive inquiries about the status of the Planning Act amendments brought forward by Doug Downey in a private members’ bill last year. The bill effectively died following second reading when Mr. Downey was appointed to cabinet as Attorney General. As we have previously reported, the draft amendments are now with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing and we have been encouraging the government to reintroduce them in a new bill.
Earlier this week we participated in a Justice Sector Call with the Attorney General and had an opportunity to ask him about the status of these amendments. He is still very keen to see these amendments enacted, and suggested that letters of encouragement from lawyers to their local MPPs may be helpful. Contact information for all MPPs is available here.
Tarion consultation
Tarion is seeking input on 10 consumer protection initiatives, including the implementation of eight of the Auditor General’s recommendations. Further details are available here.
Tarion has offered to set up an online meeting with the FOLA Real Estate representatives if there is interest. Alternatively, written submissions can be made through the Ontario Regulatory Registry here or by emailing submissions@tarion.com before August 24, 2020.
Please let us know if your association is interested in participating in an online consultation with Tarion regarding and if there is sufficient interest, we will make arrangements.
Tarion Advisory
Tarion issued a bulletin on July 6, 2020 regarding the reinstatement of timelines and resumption of in-person inspections. The bulletin is available here.
Stay up to date with FOLA’s real estate information at https://fola.ca/real-estate-law.