CCI Toronto News
Legislative Newsflash: Energy Reporting Requirements
In Ontario, the owners of buildings above a certain size are required by O. Reg. 506/18 to the Electricity Act, 1998 to report their annual electricity and water consumption for the building. Buildings that are larger than 50,000 square feet in total gross floor area, and that (in the case of a multi-unit residential building) contain more than 10 units, are subject to the reporting requirement, and must file their annual reports for a given calendar year by no later than July 1 of the following year. The regulation provides that a condominium corporation is considered to be the owner of the building for the purposes of fulfilling the reporting requirement.
If you are like the author, you may be wondering how big a 50,000 square foot condominium building is. While the answer to this question will obviously depend on the built form of the building, one point of reference is that City of Toronto guidelines for tall buildings (which have been in place since 2013) provide, as a matter of policy, that each floor plate should be no larger than 8,000 square feet. A building of at least seven floors with a floor plate size of 8,000 square feet would exceed the 50,000 square foot threshold to trigger the reporting requirement. Any condominium board of directors or manager that is wondering whether their building exceeds 50,000 square feet would be well-advised to consult the corporation’s engineer or an architect.
A summary of the particular information that is required to be reported, and the method of reporting, is available from the Government of Ontario website and can be found here.