Condo Living

July 15, 2026 Published by Golden Horseshoe Chapter - By Kevin Shaw

Spring Lunch & Learn – Knowledge Barn

From the Volume 28, Summer 2026 issue of the CCI GHC Condo News Magazine

Friday May 29, 2026
Dyment’s Glen Drummond Farm, Dundas, ON

It was a beautiful warm spring day at Dyment’s Farm where the CCI Golden Horseshoe Professional and Business Partners committee held their spring lunch & learn event. A series of speakers were on hand to provide condo industry tips to the audience of Condo Directors and Property Managers.

This was the second annual event held at the Dyment’s Glen Drummond Farm venue located at 416 Fallsview Road East in Dundas, Ontario.

The speakers for the event included myself, Kevin Shaw, Principal with Cion – Engineers & Building Scientists, Luka Milidragovic from Condominium Lending Group, Zeke Margaritis from Armourco, Carly Rowden from Normac, Wayne Scott from Wellington Dock & Door and Jordan Vandervelde from Edison Engineers. The session was moderated by Mike Mullen, Executive VP from Wilson Blanchard who wore his stray farm hat and utilized his signature cow horn to keep the sessions moving right on time.

For further details (including a list of our many sponsors), and to see a series of great photos taken at the event, please visit the Golden Horseshoe Chapter of CCI website (cci-ghc.ca) under “Courses and Events”.

The following is a brief synopsis of the speakers presentations from that day.

Kevin Shaw -
Adequate Funding, What Does It Mean?

I kicked off the rapid-style presentations with a brief discussion on “Adequate Funding” when it comes to Reserve Fund Studies. My first comments were to point out that the term “adequate”, which is quoted from the Condominium Act, has never been properly defined but has generally been accepted to mean the Reserve Fund must maintain positive balances over the required 30-year study period while covering the planned expenditures.

The issues arise when the discussion turns to when the Reserve Fund is to be adequate. The Regulations for the Act state that for new condos (registered after the Act came into force), it’s 1 year and for existing condos it was 15 years. The math however shows we have run out of the time originally envisioned when the Act came into force:

• Act came into force in 2001
• First study was to be completed by 2024
• 2024 + 15 years = 2019?

Here we are in 2026 and it’s a bit of a wild west situation where the Regulations no longer appear applicable. So what is to be done when it comes to Reserve Fund planning? Here are the general recommendations being followed today:

1. A review of the Act in 2013 proposed the following change to the idea of adequate funding:
   1. The year over year percentage change in total contributions to the reserve fund should be no greater than the assumed inflation rate used in the study;
   2. Except for the first 3 years when total contributions may be greater than the assumed rate.

Further to this, the Professional Engineers of Ontario (PEO), agrees that “it is generally accepted in the industry that the goal of an ideal reserve fund study is that the rate of escalation of contributions should not exceed the assumed rate of inflation.” The PEO further states that “where this is not possible…it is reasonable to inflate contributions at a greater rate than inflation for the period of time until the next study will be completed (3 years)”.

For the reasons described above, the majority of planners within the industry are following those guidelines when preparing studies.

The outstanding question we still periodically receive is “are there other available options under the requirements of the Condo Act”. The short answer is maybe but you will need to speak with your planner and determine what they may guide you towards. This could incorporate an extension of the catch-up period (more than the 3 years recommended).

Reserve Fund Planning has been a very difficult task in the aftermath of Covid and the resulting increases in inflation across all industries/communities. It is more important than ever to work closely with your Reserve Fund planner to compile the best Studies possible to allow Condos to properly maintain the Common Elements and Assets of their Corporation.

Luka Milidragovic –
Underfunding of Reserve Funds

Luka kicked off his presentation with a sobering statistic posted by the Auditor General of Ontario in a 2020 report that found that “69% of surveyed condo boards did not have adequate funds to pay for major repairs.” Inadequate reserve funds and staggering construction inflation was resulting in Reserve Fund shortfalls for many condominiums in Ontario.

Findings from Statistics Canada indicated the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) was facing an 86% increase in construction inflation for residential buildings over a five-year period from 2020 through 2024.

Luka went on to highlight that a typical reserve fund study accounting for 3% increases over that same period of time would have only totalled 16% total increase compared to the 86% published data.

The discussion concluded with the recommendation for corporations to explore the multiple funding options available for reserve fund studies dealing with potential shortfalls.

Short-term fundings options were presented should a Board be facing a Reserve Fund shortfall. Options such as special assessments, loans or hybrid are available to assist with bridging the gap between Reserve Fund balances and needed repair costs.

Zeke Margaritis –
What’s an RFP and How Can Artificial Intelligence (AI) Help?

Zeke started off by listing the most important aspects that a Request for Proposal (RFP) must communicate. These include; scope, expectations, timelines, standards, deliverables and communication requirements.

Poorly prepared RFP’s are problematic as they do not provide enough details regarding selected finishes, phasing strategies, access requirements or thorough specifications. This leads to bidders/contractors having to make assumptions with their pricing resulting in inconsistent pricing during tendering and potential change orders and delays during construction.

Zeke emphasized that quality RFP’s have better results for clients by providing better planning and clearer expectations. These result in closer tenders, smoother execution and a better experience overall when it comes to construction projects.

Zeke’s next series of comments described how AI can assist with preparing scopes faster, improving verbiage, organizing the RFP contents and building effective check lists. While AI can assist with the preparation of more effective RFP’s, it does not replace the knowledge or experience of consultants, engineers, contactors or Property Managers.

Zeke went on to illustrate some examples of how entering a strong prompt into an AI tool can provide a detailed RFP summary document that can be tailored to any individual property and project.

Key takeaways from Zeke’s presentation include:

• RFP’s set scope, standards and expectations
• Well prepared RFP’s reduce risks and potential changes
• AI can draft, organize and compare RFP’s and submitted bids
• Good prompts = usable draft RFP’s
• AI assists you but your expertise still leads

Carly Rowden –
The Ontario Insurance Gap

Carly’s presentation focused on the question; what drives valuation increases and how can corporation’s plan ahead?

The “insurance gap” referred to in the title for Carly’s segment refers to the difference between the policy limit and the actual replacement cost value for the property. Carly highlighted the main factors that are driving replacement costs today and those include:

• Construction costs and the recent years of inflation
• GTA rebuild complexities
• Building Code changes
• Labour and material volatility

These factors can lead to unexpected increases where valuation best practices break down. Timing for appraisals matters where a condo is trying to minimize cost increases. This means not waiting every 3 to 5 years for an appraisal, have them done more often (even yearly) and a Board can better predict increases in insurance fees. Being underinsured or having an insurance gap can occur when construction costs are increasing rapidly as they have over the last 4 years.

Key takeaways from Carly’s presentation were:

• Get regular valuation updates (these lead to smaller predictable changes)
• Align valuations with renewal cycles
• Increase communication between Property Managers, Boards and Brokers

The bottom line is re-construction costs will always be changing so how we capture those changes in what matters. Consistency can help eliminate frustrating jumps.

Wayne Scott –
Sectional Overhead Doors vs. High Performance Rubber Doors

“You’re using the wrong door” is how Mr. Scott began his presentation which highlighted how there are better upgrades to consider when replacing your conventional garage sectional overhead door.

Sectional doors are not built to cycle 100+ times per day which is the average for most parking garages connected to residential sites. Sectional doors have multiple failure points including; springs, hinges, rollers, cables, drums, tracks to name a few and when these break down, a condo may suffer downtime (and unhappy residents) while its waiting to be repaired. Sectional overhead doors also do not suffer impact damage well and this often leads to long downtimes while a contractor undertakes a complete replacement.

Scott emphasized that newer high performance rubber doors are a great choice in today’s market. These doors are designed to cycle 100’s of times per day and can last a million cycles in their lifetime. The doors come equipped with impactable bottom-bars so there up and running in minutes following an accidental impact. Their also very fast to open and close (double the speed of conventional sectional doors). Rubber doors are much more reliable in today’s busy world.

Jordan Vandervelde –
Risk of Increasing Popularity of Wood Buildings in Ontario

Wood construction is increasing in popularity in Ontario as housing demands drive the need for faster and less expensive construction. Sustainability and lower carbon construction also continues to make gains in the housing market. Jordan highlighted that recent Code changes are permitting much taller structure (up top 18 storey using encapsulated mass timber design).

Wood structures do however have unique risks during and after construction including fire and maybe more importantly moisture.

While most wood structures in modern construction incorporate drained wall assemblies to handle moisture ingress, they can often fall short when it comes to the as-constructed detailing. Jordan illustrated a series of examples where this has been found to be an issue even just a few short years after initial construction.

Photographic examples of some structures clad in Exterior Insulation Finish Systems (EIFS) underlined the devastating effect water/moisture can have on a wood structure when poor/inadequate detailing allows water to bypass the cladding and physically destroy the underlying structural wood components (sheathing, stud work, beams, etc.).

Inadequate detailing can extend to balcony structures where poor application of waterproofing systems allows water to bypass and saturate the underlying wood structure. Often these balconies are clad over as part of the design preventing the damages from being readily visible. Of particular note are fastening points for railings/guards which are often fastened down through the membrane resulting in unsealed penetrations.

Key takeaways from Jordan’s session were:

• Building age doesn’t matter
• Deterioration of wood structure is often concealed
• Water leakage is not always active or readily apparent
• Get a professional involved
• Get a condition assessment with test openings

Summary

Overall, it was a very successful event and the rapid fire/short presentation style had a lot of positive feedback from the attendees. We want to thank all the speakers and all the people who work so hard in the background to pull these events together. A big thank you to our many sponsors who are the ones that make these presentations possible with their generous support.

Thanks to all who attended and we are looking forward to seeing you again at one of our future lunch and learn events.

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Kevin Shaw, B.Tech.(Arch.Sc.), LCCI
Principal
Cion Engineers & Building Scientists
416-617-4832
Kevin.shaw@cion.com