According to Statistics Canada, the year over year increase in construction costs in a single-family home was an average of 14.6%. In Winnipeg, the quarterly increase was 3.5%.

There was an article published in the Winnipeg Free Press about waste diversion fees being applied to condo unit owners for corporations with more than seven units. The proposed annual fee would start in January of 2023 at $44 per unit to help cover recycling costs. As this late breaking news came just as we were going to print for our fall newsletter the implications and rationale are not clear. Already there are letters to the editor and we encourage you to contact your City Councillor about this matter.

Crime is not an everyday experience, but when it happens, it is very troubling. There are several ways your condominium building, residents and visitors can be protected.

We wrote to the Standing Policy Committee on Property and Development, Heritage, and Downtown Development (SPC-PDHD) asking to be included in their stakeholder consultations as we could provide the perspectives from condominium owners, investors, boards and residents, along with the perspectives of our professional members and business partners.

In the past year I set up a GIC-ladder in our condo corporation’s (CC’s) reserve fund to counteract the meager interest rates payable in most savings accounts. First, I determined the surplus in the account in relation to our needs over the next five years, taking into account our projections for reserve fund contributions (RFCs) and the projected spending based on our current reserve fund study (RFS). Given that interest rates are likely going up over the next few years, I then split the surplus amount into five lumps and invested each lump in a GIC, with terms of one, two, three, four and five years. The plan is to follow a similar thought process to rollover principal and interest into five year GICs along with any additional surplus each year onward.

We wrote to the Standing Policy Committee on Water and Waste, Riverbank Management and the Environment (SPC-WWRME) offering our involvement to come up with a MFWD fee that would be fair and equitable to condo corporations and their unit owners, residents, tenants and investors. We did receive a favorable response from the Committee Chair, Councilor Mayes, and subsequently had a Zoom meeting with him on March 22nd. The meeting was cordial and informative, and Councilor Mayes has since put us in touch with the appropriate City Staff. He indicated he will keep us apprised of any developments, but didn’t expect any meaningful activity until after the fall municipal elections.

If you've experienced a water leak, you might be ahead in the water leak detection game. Prior experience of discovering a water leak, cleaning up the mess, dealing with repairs and insurance is not something anyone wants to repeat. Motivation is never so keen as when you’re ankle deep in water.