Suggestions to Improve the MB Condo Act - Fall 2024

Article from Volume 11, Issue Number 4, 2024

Suggestions to Improve the MB Condo Act - Fall 2024

By Alan Forbes | Other articles by Alan Forbes | Regular Column

Here are ideas for making the condo act more effective

Condominium corporation election process

Suggestion: Update the condominium act to include some minimum requirements for election of condominium directors, including specifics on the election process, use of acclamation and use of proxies. For example, the default could be the right to vote for or against specific directors by secret ballot. Similarly, the default could be not to allow acclamation unless a motion is passed to allow for it for the election in question. As to proxies, a definition of unit owners’ rights to view proxies and how long they should be retained would be useful.

Rationale: The question of acclamation for condominium corporation elections comes up frequently, as it did at our September CCI Manitoba AGM. We also frequently get inquiries from members concerned about the election process being manipulated by unscrupulous directors, who walk into meetings at the last minute with a pile of proxies and don’t allow unit owners to review the proxies and verify their validity.

Background: The condominium act does not mention acclamation at all, and has limited detail on the requirements for elections. Here’s what it says:

Board elected by unit owners
95 Unit owners must elect the directors of the board in accordance with this Act and the condominium corporation's by-laws.

Election of directors at annual general meeting
111(1) At each annual general meeting, the directors must be elected by the unit owners entitled to vote who are present in person or by proxy at the meeting.

While the condominium act has some good detail on proxies in section 128, it does not provide transparency to unit owners in terms of validation of proxies, nor for the retention period.

Proxy
128(1) A person may appoint a proxy only by written authorization.

Requirement for signed document
128(2) A condominium corporation's by-laws may require the document to be signed by the person appointing the proxy.

Requirements of proxy document
128(3) A document appointing a proxy
(a) may be general or for a specific meeting or a specific resolution; and
(b) may be revoked at any time by the person who made the appointment.

Effect of proxy
128(4) A proxy stands in the place of the person appointing the proxy, and can do anything that a person can do at a meeting, including vote, propose and second motions and participate in the discussion, unless limited by the proxy document.

Limit on who may be a proxy
128(5) The following persons may not be a proxy of a unit owner who is not a declarant or owner-developer:
(a) an employee or agent of the condominium corporation;
(b) a declarant or an employee or agent of the declarant or a person who does not deal with the declarant at arm's length;
(c) an owner-developer or an employee or agent of the owner-developer or a person who does not deal with the owner-developer at arm's length;
(d) a person who provides management services to the condominium corporation under a property management agreement or that person's employee or agent.

Any proxy document appointing such a person is void.

Registry of condominium corporations

Suggestion: Update the condominium act to include an annual filing of basic information, including physical address, mailing address, directors’ names, property manager’s name and number of units, similar to what is done in Ontario.

Rationale: Access to a registry would enable CCI or municipal governments or the provincial government to proactively contact and inform condominium corporations on issues that could affect them and also inform them of any proposed or pending changes to regulations or legislation. As well, it would allow CCI to make all corporations aware of publicly and freely accessible information that would be beneficial to them in the governance and management of their properties.

Background: At our September AGM, one member asked about our market penetration in Manitoba. Our response was that we were aware of at least 1,300 corporations in the province and that perhaps 25 to 30 per cent were current or lapsed members of CCI. After the AGM, we reviewed our data and can now report that there are at least 1,450 condominium corporations in the province, of which only 22 per cent are current or lapsed CCI members.

The member’s follow-up question was why we didn’t use the provincial condominium registry to contact those other corporations and encourage them to join. Our answer was that there was no accessible list that could be used to contact condominium corporations, unlike the situation in Ontario. (Check out Ontario’s online condominium registry for an example of the information publicly available there, try Region = London and Number = 2.)

It’s unfortunate that no such registry exists in Manitoba. Such a list would be very valuable for our advocacy efforts. In the past few years there have been stakeholder consultations in Winnipeg, for example, both for regulating short-term rentals and also for waste diversion and recycling programs. Being able to contact all affected condominium corporations directly would have allowed for improved quantity and quality of stakeholder input. It would also allow CCI to make all corporations aware of publicly and freely accessible information that would benefit them in the governance and management of their properties.

We encourage you to submit suggestions for improving the Manitoba Condominium Act to us via our website. For reference, the province has a useful website with a guide to the act and links to the act itself, and the associated regulations and various related forms. The province’s website, The Condominium Act & Information, has links to the act, the regulations and numerous other online resources along with contact information for your use. We have submitted a few email inquiries in the past and got good results.

Telephone: 204-945-3744
Toll Free: 1-866-626-4862
TTY: 204-945-4796
Email: MBcondo@gov.mb.ca

If you are curious about earlier improvement suggestions, you can easily find them by going to our Magazine webpage and searching using the text string “Improve the MB condominium Act.”

Alan Forbes owns and lives in a condominium and is a director of his condominium corporation. He also is a director of CCI Manitoba and is its vice-president.