Blog Tips - What are "tags"

How will HST affect you?

We are all aware that Ontario’s tax structure has changed and that the HST (Harmonised Sales Tax) came into effect July 01, 2010.  There has been a lot of media coverage on how the HST will affect our goods and services, but not on how it will affect owners, operators and managers of real property.  The Toronto law firm Blaney McMurtry LLP, has published an article that speaks to this very timely topic.  The article focuses on the purchase and sale of commercial real property, leases and licences of commercial real property, the purchase and sale of newly constructed residential property and the resale of residential property.

Read the Article >>

Last month I attended the 2010 ENERGY STAR® Participants Gala in Ottawa, hosted by Natural Resources Canada.

I was there with SHSC CEO Lindsey Reed and Board Chair Roger Maloney to accept the ENERGY STAR® Collaborative Initiative of the Year Award. This award honours those who, through partnerships, help businesses and consumers save money and contribute to Canada’s climate change objectives.

SHSC captured the award for its light bulb replacement and appliance bulk buy programs. Over these past three years, SHSC in collaboration with its subsidiary GLOBE, Toronto Hydro, housing providers and residents installed over 136,000 ENERGY STAR® compact fluorescent bulbs in 30,000 housing units and reduced more than 6.5 MegaWatts in electricity demand from the grid.

In 2009, SHSC launched its Appliance Bulk Buy program, offering ENERGY STAR® qualified appliances, as well as the environmental decommissioning of old appliances. This collaboration of not-for-profit housing corporations, municipalities, appliance manufacturers and government agencies has resulted in the sale of 3,000 ENERGY STAR^® qualified refrigerators.

According to the ENERGY STAR® Saving Calculator, the direct environmental benefit of these two programs is equivalent to taking over 320 cars off the road or planting 160,000 trees. Roger accepted the award on behalf of SHSC. He shared the stage with other award recipients from different categories, including:

• Whirlpool Canada
• Sears Canada
• Hydro-Québec
• Veridian Connections
• Manitoba Hydro
• Toshiba Canada
• Climate Change Central
• All Weather Windows
• JELD-WEN Canada

But SHSC isn’t resting on this recent accolade. In 2010, both programs are being expanded – with the launch of a new Toronto Hydro ‘Deep Measures Retrofit’ program and a province-wide ENERGY STAR®-certified Windows Bulk Buy program (more about the latter below).

Introducing New Windows and Sliding Glass Door Program
Following the success of these initiatives, SHSC will be launching a new ENERGY STAR® Windows and Sliding Glass Door program soon. Similar to previous bulk buy offering, SHSC acts as the administrator to ensure integrity to the process – we have established product standards, managed a public request for proposals and negotiated competitive prices with a volume rebate based on the participation of housing providers. Look out for the official launch of this brand new ENERGY STAR® initiative.

Much of what we do as housing providers will be influenced in the coming months by three key pieces of legislation: the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA), the Ontario Human Rights Code (OHRC) and the Ontario Building Code (OBC).

What this alphabet soup of rules and regulations have in common is that each will affect the relationships that housing providers have with their applicants, residents and employees. In all likelihood, many housing providers will also see a financial impact resulting from the new laws.

For now let’s focus on the AODA

Ontario has had accessibility legislation in place for some time, not to mention the fact that the Human Rights Code has been in place since 1982. So why the sudden focus on disabilities?

Actually it’s not so unexpected. Quite frankly, Ontario has a pretty poor track record as far as protecting the rights of persons with disabilities. The Ontarians with Disabilities Act (ODA), which immediately pre-dated the AODA, lacked the legislative clout required for proper enforcement. Businesses, employers and others who discriminated against the disabled risked a complaint being filed with the Ontario Human Rights Commission, or even a lawsuit. However, given the expense and time required to carry out such actions, many folks who were allegedly targeted by discrimination simply gave up.

With the proclamation of the AODA in 2005, and the more recent focus on the Act’s Customer Care Standard, businesses and individuals are now concentrating on ensuring that the service they provide is compliant with the legislation. Most of the legislative changes have come about as a result of the Act’s sweeping and comprehensive definition of disability; in fact, the definition of disability in the AODA now mirrors that of the Human Rights Code.

And it’s a long list. According to Section 2 of the AODA, “disability” means:

any degree of physical disability, infirmity, malformation or disfigurement that is caused by bodily injury, birth defect or illness and, without limiting the generality of the foregoing, includes diabetes mellitus, epilepsy, a brain injury, any degree of paralysis, amputation, lack of physical co-ordination, blindness or visual impediment, deafness or hearing impediment, muteness or speech impediment, or physical reliance on a guide dog or other animal or on a wheelchair or other remedial appliance or device,

a condition of mental impairment or a developmental disability,

a learning disability, or a dysfunction in one or more of the processes involved in understanding or using symbols or spoken language,

a mental disorder, or

an injury or disability for which benefits were claimed or received under the insurance plan established under the Workplace Safety and Insurance Act, 1997;

So what does all of this mean to housing providers? Well, for one thing we have to make sure that our ducks are in a row, so to speak.

The requirements for the Customer Service standard cover nine areas. Only the first seven apply to private sector or not-for-profit organizations with 1-19 employees. If your organization employs 20 or more individuals, you will also be required to document and report compliance to the Ministry:

• Policies, practices and procedures
• Training
• Feedback process
• Communication
• Service Animals
• Support Persons
• Notice of temporary disruption of service
• Documenting your compliance with the regulation
• Reporting

In addition to the Customer Service Standard, benchmarks are being developed in four key areas of daily living:

• Built Environment
• Employment
• Information and Communications
• Transportation

Not-for-profit organizations will need to be in compliance with the Customer Service standard by January 1, 2012. The goal is to have standards in place for all 5 areas of the AODA by 2025. So for now the focus is on ensuring that EVERYONE receives equal service predicated on recognizing individual independence, dignity, integration and equality of opportunity.

Eventually, as additional standards are entrenched in law, providers will undoubtedly receive requests for accommodation, which will include everything from widening doorways for wheelchairs and scooters, to installing fire alarms equipped with strobe lights for the hearing impaired, to allowing for the smoking of medical marijuana and creating barriers between those who smoke it and those who don’t.

More information:

• Ministry of Community and Social Services website
• The current and forthcoming issue SHSC Insurance newsletter Risky Business have articles on OHRC and medical marijuana
• SHSC Training has developed a full-day workshop, Ontario Human Rights Code Amendments – To be Forewarned is to be Forearmed! It provides an in-depth overview of the specific changes in the Ontario Human Rights Code. For further information, contact SHSC Training Manager Lisa Kotsopoulos at 416.594.9325 ext 242 or email lkotsopoulos@shscorp.ca

For the past year, I have been part of the planning team for the amazing new Centre for Learning at 540 Dundas Street East. It’s in the heart of the vibrant new community emerging through the Regent Park Revitalization.

From June 10 to 12, the Centre held its Open House. On June 11, both Marwa Eldardiry and I from SHSC helped out along with reps from Ryerson, George Brown, U of T, and graduates of the Immigrant Women Integration Program (IWIP) who are there to screen their Digital Stories.

Ryerson University representatives await local community members.

As I walk north from Queen past the mosque and approach Dundas, I see the construction underway and new town homes are almost complete. In the midst of brand new mixed-rental buildings, commercial spaces, condos and townhomes –change is happening. You can feel it. On the corner of Dundas and Parliament (altered considerably since Google Streetview photographed it) there is a new Tim Horton’s filled with families, an RBC, a Rogers store and a Sobeys. People are talking to neighbours, walking dogs and waiting for the streetcar to take them to work.

Approaching the doorway to the Centre of Learning, there is a bright yellow sign tied with balloons to let people know about the Open House. Inside, information tables are filled with displays and brochures and a computer lab set up with online surveys to find out which courses, workshops and training people are interested in. Marwa is helping someone complete a survey. A table is filled with scrumptous treats and samosas made by local residents. There’s an arts and crafts room set up for children staffed by volunteers from Art Heart and an assortment of markers and paper eggs to colour. Beautiful photos line the walls. Community members are starting to arrive.

The main event follows. The Centre for Digital Story Telling has been working with the women in the IWIP program to create their digital stories and one story– by Sureya – relays the reality of moving with her family to her new home in the revitalization process.

As a housing professional, having worked at Toronto Community Housing for over five years and now at SHSC, Sureya’s story is particularly poignant because it is a testament to all the years of planning and tenant engagement, working with the community and staying true to the vision of a mixed income, mixed housing community with roads, parks, retail and community space. Sureya’s digital story is one of social inclusion. And it’s Sureya’s story , in Sureya’s words, voice and imagery.

The new Regent Park is becoming a creative, exciting place – filled with socially innovative system enablers like the Centre of Learning, the Small Business Portal and the Employment and Enterprise Hub. Coming soon – the Arts and Culture Centre and the Aquatic Centre. Stay tuned!!

For more information about the Regent Park Centre of Learning, visit: http://www.tccld.org/

As a fourth year Urban and Regional Planning student at Ryerson University, a housing activist in my community and a part-time employee at SHSC for the past three years, I was already familiar with a lot of the history covered by the City of Toronto Archives rental housing exhibit.

A Public Health Concern

That said, the way the information was presented was unique.  It provided an overview and history of housing in Toronto (using pictures, texts and official documents), making it easy to see the innovations in affordable rental housing in chronological order since the early twentieth century.  At that time, the housing situation had become so bad that the city’s medical officer of health, Dr. Charles Hastings, issued a report declaring it a public health concern.  This report was written in response to Toronto’s booming growth and industrial development, which brought with it the problems of slums, pollution, epidemics, poverty, and ill health in the late nineteenth century.

A Study in Slum Clearance - City of Toronto Archives

Since then, the city developed the Regent Park, St. James Town and St. Lawrence neighbourhoods. These developments still exist today and house a large number of Torontonians.  They all started off with good intentions: their goal was to provide rental housing at affordable rates.

The exhibit prompts visitors to take a step back and look at these developments – and decide if the urban planning ideas embedded in them have stood the test of time. As Jessica mentioned in her article, Regent Park, built exclusively to provide affordable housing was a success when it was first built. But the neighbourhood and the design principles used to create it faced criticism as time passed.

The St. Lawrence Neighbourhood

One of the more successful community developments highlighted in the Archives’ exhibit is the revitalization of the St. Lawrence community through the 1970s, 80s and 90s. The community was designed using a unique collaborative approach where the planners were not the ones driving the show – instead all community stakeholders had a say in how this development unfolded. The area features a mix of housing including rental units, condos, co-ops and community housing.

The St. Lawrence neighbourhood is said to be Canada’s most dynamic inner city neighbourhood and it continues to be a success. The exhibit confirmed my belief that the planning principles and the unique approach used to create this neighbourhood should be recognized and used to help plan and design future neighbourhoods.

Last week, Marwa Eldardiry and I, student interns at SHSC, went to the City of Toronto Archives. We were there to visit SHSC’s co-sponsored exhibition, “A New Lease on Life.” The exhibit is a pictorial history of public and private rental development projects in Toronto, depicting how the social housing sector has changed over the years.

City of Toronto Archives

As a co-op student from the Corporate Communications program at Seneca College, I am new to the social housing sector. With limited background knowledge in affordable housing, I was impressed with the exhibit’s presentation of Toronto’s history of rental housing. Incorporating numerous illustrations and primary documentation, the exhibit gave me a strong sense of the changes in social housing in over the course of the past 100 years.

Walking in, Marwa and I were welcomed with a large poster explaining: “Although Toronto is known as a ‘city of homes,’ it might just as well call itself a ‘city of renters.’” On the floor, in front of the poster, were two vintage suitcases, which set the tone of the exhibit: renters on the move in 20th century Toronto.

Safer and Healthier Communities in Toronto
A prominent theme that permeated the exhibit was the need to create safer and healthier communities in Toronto. Due to the inadequate living conditions that had been the norm in the city’s past, the city undertook the Regent Park North project in 1947, Canada’s first public housing project. The project marked the start of a public program to end the slums in the city, which emerged in the absence of a public housing system. At the time, this project took a new approach, utilizing the “Garden City” model. The new buildings, designed in an “X” shape, were separated by vast amounts of green space. It was interesting to be able to compare Regent Park’s building planning model, which was a dramatic contrast to the surrounding neighbourhoods. The nearby buildings were side-by-side, with little separation between them. The Bluette’s were the first family to move into Regent Park in March 1949. Alfred Bluette, when first moving in, said that it was, “like walking into a dream.”

However, Regent Park, built exclusively to provide affordable housing, faced criticism as time passed. The city and Regent Park tenants found the project to be ineffective, as it created a social divide, turning Regent Park into a community that became isolated from the city. The inner streets did not connect to main roads and afforded limited access for emergency vehicles and visitors. The area, not being conducive to community building, once again declined.

By attending the exhibit, I learned about the history of affordable housing in Toronto, and how social housing developments have changed over the past century. The exhibit’s examination of Regent Park shows how affordable housing projects in Toronto, and the lessons planners have learned from them, can help pave the way for future developments.

Visit the Exhibition
To learn more about the chronicles of Toronto’s public and private rental developments, visit “A New Lease on Life” exhibition at the City of Toronto Archives.

The exhibition is open Monday to Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and will run until the end of the year.

Watch for Marwa’s blog next week, as she takes a closer look at Toronto’s early development of affordable rental housing.

On May 11, Habitat for Humanity hosted a mayoral debate among the 6 frontrunners in Toronto mayoral race on affordable housing.

The debate gave the candidates an opportunity to elaborate on their platforms. But generally speaking, they stayed to their rehearsed talking points, while taking the occasional potshot at each other’s campaigns.

To bring you up to speed on their individual positions, here’s our cheat sheet on their positions:

Rob Ford

According to the Gospel of Ford, the system is broken and no more social housing should be built in Toronto. Instead, the city should take advantage of the current vacancy rates in private buildings and provide rent subsidies to low-income individuals. Ford peppered his speech with comments on the remarkable cleanliness of social housing in Toronto (he’s visited people in social housing) and how the Rob Ford Football Foundation was a good place for youth in social housing to become healthy and productive citizens.

Giorgio Mammoliti

Mammoliti, chair of the city’s Affordable Housing Committee, repeatedly flourished a copy of the Housing Opportunities Toronto: An Affordable Housing Action Plan 2010-2020 (HOT) as if it were his campaign document. He identified himself as a champion for further social housing development and reinvestment in existing stock. And yet his position on inclusionary zoning was surprisingly evasive, suggesting that he would defer to local communities (read: local NIMBYism). Mammoliti’s primary target for barbs was his council-mate Ford, who he repeatedly charged with a lack of experience on the issue.

Joe Pantalone

As Deputy Mayor and the sole lefty on the panel, Pantalone defended Mayor Miller’s record on the file (and got booed for that). He also emphasized the need for a national housing strategy, citing Bill C-304 which recently passed second reading. Pantalone also made a suggestive pitch for Transit City, noting the correlation between accessible housing and transit – that real estate near good public transit is unaffordable and that low to moderate income earners are denied opportunities as a result of that. Pantalone took issue with Smitherman on provincial funding for housing and Transit City and with Ford and Rossi on relying on private interests and to support social housing. But overall, Pantalone’s delivery was garbled and he got clobbered when he attacked Smitherman on how scandals like eHealth diverted money from the city – with ‘Furious George’ parrying back with a laundry list of poorly run, over budget city-run projects.

Rocco Rossi

For a Liberal, Rossi sounded like a dyed in the wool blue conservative. His message was simple and unequivocal: the invisible hand of the market is the solution to social housing. The public sector, with its “culture of waste” and lack of fiscal accountability needs to focus on regulation and hand the management of social housing over to the efficient, effective private sector developers and landlords. His solution for waiting lists is a more robust and dynamic city economy that will create higher paying jobs. When Rossi cited Pathways to Education as an effective, innovative private sector solution, however, he was challenged by Smitherman on the reality of this claim.

George Smitherman

Just as Mammoliti trotted out his HOT report, Smitherman repeatedly cited Habitat for Humanity, Streets to Homes, Options for Homes, Artscape and Toronto Community Housing initiatives in Regent Park and Lawrence Heights as models for the future of affordable housing. He also pointed to his work as Minister of Health in creating 6,000 units of housing for the mentally ill. Smitherman suggested that solutions for social housing should come from across the political spectrum. On the right side of the plank, he agreed that private housing stock could be used to create affordable housing and cited his track record of fiscal discipline. On the left side of the plank: reinvesting in the existing social housing stock, leveraging city land resources and the necessity of government’s central role in building affordable housing. The left side took centre stage when he challenged Rossi on the notion that you can run a city like a business — because when it comes to cities, there is no single bottom line.

Sarah Thomson

Strains of Kumbaya could almost be heard every time Thomson spoke. Weighing into the debate based on her credentials as a (briefly) homeless teen and a business leader committed to working across boundaries, Thomson was light on details but big on the warm fuzzies of cooperation and collaboration. She advocated partnerships between private, public and non-profit organizations and offering the poor a “hand up, not a handout.” She was also the only candidate prepared with a prop, sporting a pink hardhat to complement the Habitat volunteers’ white ones.

Looking for more commentary? Visit:

• BlogTO story
• Globe & Mail live twitter feed
• National Post story
• Toronto Sun story
• Toronto Star story (preview)

If you have ever had to deal with overflowing garbage bins, trash blowing around buildings and related residents complaints, you know that this is not only unsightly – it can also be costly and time consuming. Reducing and recycling are not just trends or nice ideas, they are ways to lower operating costs and improve living and working conditions.

Sioux Lookout recently demonstrated how community-led efforts can help solve big problems. This north-western Ontario town of 5,500 recently became the first community in Ontario to move towards the outright banning of plastic bags, a ban that started with a citizens’ environment committee and a survey by high school students.

Why are plastic bags a problem?
The chemicals used to manufacture disposable plastic bags are toxic to both people and the environment. The phthalates used to stabilize and soften plastic are known endocrine disruptors. Vinyl chloride is a proven carcinogen and can also cause liver, kidney, and brain damage.

Although these bags are designed to be disposable, they are highly resource-intensive to manufacture, process, transport and dispose of – especially given that they’re intended for single use. But even if you re-use a disposable bag, most will still end up in landfill, where they can take up to 1,000 years to break down. Like plastic garbage patches in both the Pacific and Atlantic oceans, the bags may be out of sight, but their negative impacts to the environment, the economy and human and animal health persist long after they’ve been used.

Other Jurisdictions
To date, Sioux Lookout is among only a handful of global leaders in their move to ban the bag.

In March 2002, Bangladesh banned plastic bags in its capital after they were found to have been the main culprit during the 1988 and 1998 floods that submerged two-thirds of the country. Discarded bags were choking the drainage system. Notably, the ban has produced an unexpected positive economic effect: the revival of the jute bag industry. Jute grows abundantly in Bangladesh and requires a lot less energy to process than polyethelene.

Also in 2002, Ireland introduced a PlasTax of about $0.20 per bag. The money raised from the tax is put into a “green fund” to further benefit communities and the environment. The result has been that consumption has decreased by more than 90%, thanks to an intensive environmental awareness campaign, which made the carrying of plastic bags socially unacceptable.

The Power of Community
In the cases of Ireland and Sioux Lookout particularly, engaging the community proved to be critical to the success of the ban and its environmental and economic outcomes.

What does this mean to people in the housing sector? Well, there are many simple and inexpensive actions which you can take to lower costs and complaints in your buildings and improve health, comfort and maintenance. GLOBE’s Community Champions program, recently recognized in the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario’s recent annual report as a notable initiative, educates and enables the residents themselves to become agents of change in their own communities.

In addition, GLOBE’s soon to be released Sustainability Toolbox is a “starter kit” to identifying opportunities which will provide you with sector-specific examples of improvements that you can make to increase the efficiency of your operations.

To find out more about it, email us!

The volcano in Iceland has got me thinking about emergency response planning. Although I am not anticipating volcanic activity in Canada anytime soon, a less catastrophic event than that could easily bring the daily business of social housing to a standstill.

Ice Storm of 1998
The ice storm of 1998 was one such incident, which impacted more people than any weather-related event in Canadian history. In August 2003, during one of the hottest weeks of the year, over 50 million people in the north-eastern United States and Canada found themselves suddenly without power for at least 24 hours. Many were without electricity for 2 to 3 days.

The point is that when such a disaster occurs, it is often with little or no warning. While neither situation could have easily been foreseen, much less avoided, those individuals and businesses that took the time for emergency planning were able to mitigate the effects.

2 Emergency Planning Strategies
Generally, planning strategies fall under two categories: Emergency Response and Business Continuity. An Emergency Response Plan outlines the steps necessary to deal with a situation as it happens. It would include elements such as an evacuation plan and preparing emergency kits with food, water and other essentials. A Business Continuity Plan provides direction on how to put things back to normal once the emergency is over. Based on a “worst-case” scenario, the BCP would contain information on topics such as clearing debris, rebuilding destroyed offices, replacing non-operational computer equipment, and ensuring the continuity of processes and IT systems.

No one really likes to think about the possibility of a disaster, but the time to prepare for such an eventuality is now. Where do you start? SHSC has amassed a wealth of material, as well as comprehensive training, on the subject of Emergency Response Planning and Business Continuity Planning. If you are just looking for some assistance in getting started, or to inquire about the possibility of an education course in your area, give us a call at 1-877-733-SHSC (7472).

There might not be an earthquake, volcanic eruption, tsunami or asteroid in your immediate future, but at least you’ll be prepared.

Housing providers and service managers come into contact with a huge volume of information, much of it confidential. While most of us are becoming more aware of, and compliant with, privacy and confidentiality policies for dealing with paper files, we are generally remiss when it comes to handling electronic data. Here are some tips on how you can better manage confidential information in the workplace.

1. Password protection: The desktop computer has become synonymous with file storage, yet many of us fail to place a “lock” on the cabinet. The simplest way to prevent unwanted access to your electronic files is with a password. You should create a password of at least 8 characters, preferably alphanumeric (a combination of letters and numbers). Then make sure to lock your computer EVERY TIME you walk away from it. While you’re at it, turn the screen off – the average computer screen uses 60% of the computer’s overall power consumption.
2. Antivirus software: Make your system as “unhackable” as possible by installing an antivirus program, and downloading Windows security updates regularly.
3. Be mindful of where you leave your technology footprint: If you use a laptop, keep it with you at all times. Never leave a laptop in an unattended vehicle. Also, exercise caution with wireless Internet connections, many of which are not secure and can have information siphoned from them.

Another example to illustrate the final point: let’s say you need to make 100 copies of the Annual Report, and your in-house photocopier has given up the ghost. So you decide to send the job to a copy shop. While you’re at it, you include a number of confidential documents that are needed for the next board meeting. Seems pretty straightforward, right?

Chances are the documents were sent to the copy shop on an electronic storage device like a memory key, also known as a USB flash drive, a memory stick and a pen drive, among others. Most memory keys are “plug-and-play”, meaning that once plugged into a computer, anyone has access to the data contained on them. That confidential board information is now potentially a whole lot less private.

The good news is that many memory key-type storage devices come with automatic encryption, or are password protected. Although they cost a bit more, the data stored on these units offer some peace-of-mind with respect to security.

Once the files are opened, however, it’s a whole different ball-game. The printing company uses photocopiers in the performance of their work. Today’s copiers are, in effect, computers with hard drives. Everything that is scanned or downloaded into the copier ends up on the hard drive, ready to be hacked. What can you do?

Well, there may be no alternative to using an outside printing company, but there are measures you can take to ensure the confidentiality of your files. The best approach is to request a copy of the company’s privacy policy and their records destruction procedure.

While we’re on the subject of photocopiers, many housing providers own or lease their own machine. Bear in mind that most copiers built in the past 5 years come equipped with a hard drive. When it’s time to replace the copier, you should first make certain that the drive is erased.

Regardless of the medium on which your data is stored, whether paper or electronic, stationary or mobile, it is in your best interests to ensure that ALL records are maintained securely and confidentially.