Release date: March 12, 2020

Rebuilding Consumer Confidence Act, 2019: Improving Elevator Compliance

In our last Legislative Newsflash on TSSA Advocacy, we reached out to members of the condominium community to obtain their input on elevator-related issues currently facing the industry. The CCI-T Legislative Committee received plenty of responses, and we thank you for providing your valuable input on this important topic. The CCI-T Legislative Committee intends to continue advocating for positive changes to the TSSA and elevator compliance in Ontario.
In December of 2019, the Government of Ontario introduced the Rebuilding Consumer Confidence Act, 2019, which, among other things, includes proposed regulatory changes with respect to the TSSA, elevator safety and compliance issues in the province. The proposed regulatory changes are also intended to address the Auditor General’s recommendations (see our previous Legislative Newsflash for more information on those recommendations). For example, some of those proposed regulatory changes will include:

• Enabling the TSSA to impose administrative monetary penalties for non-compliance with elevator laws.
• Requiring elevator outage data to be reported to the TSSA and requiring the TSSA to make this data publicly available online for easy access.

The Ministry of Government and Consumer Services plans to consult with members of the condominium community and obtain feedback regarding the proposed regulatory changes in May, 2020. The CCI-T Legislative Committee will be providing industry-specific feedback to the Ministry, in consultation with experienced elevator consultants and technicians. Some of the topics that the CCI-T Legislative Committee intends to address in its feedback are: 

• Stronger enforcement powers to deal with large elevator maintenance companies.
• Standardized inspection requirements.
• Improved inspection consistency and supervision of TSSA inspectors.
• Encouraging fair competition amongst both large and small elevator companies operating in the province. 
• Increasing the pool of elevator-related employment opportunities in the industry.

CCI is committed to providing regular ongoing updates regarding all legislation concerning condominiums, in order to keep our members abreast of changes they need to be aware of.