Consumer Services Minister Margarett Best scored a solid hit with her bill to regulate cell phone contracts, winning support from the opposition parties and some solid media coverage.

Getting good media for a bill that costs the government little if anything while putting a win in the accomplishments column means the government will be looking for other measures to serve up.

There are strong signs that next up may be changes to the Condominium Act, which is also under Best’s portfolio. The Condo Act has not had a significant redo since it was first brought into law in 1998.

Today there are 1.3 million condo owners in Ontario and, in Toronto particularly, they represent a powerful voting constituency. Indeed, they are powerful enough to prompt Premier Dalton McGuinty to promise in writing during the last provincial election that there would be an update following the election.

The Association of Condominium Managers of Ontario has put together a list of 200 recommended changes and, along with the Canadian Condominium Institute – Toronto chapter (CCI-T), did a mass lobby at Queen’s Park April 3 to convince MPPs in all three parties of the need for change.

One of the top recommendations is for the government to take over licensing of condo managers. Right now the industry is self-policing but lacks the legislative teeth to stop a condo manager who, for example, mismanages a condo’s finances, from working elsewhere.

“Toronto and Ontario is the top condo market in the world so we have to be sure that we are also the leading jurisdiction for regulation,” said Dean McCabe, president of the condo managers association.

McCabe said he met with Best during the mass lobby and was given an assurance that her ministry is reviewing the condo act, which he interprets as a signal that a reform bill will be introduced.

Momentum may indeed be building for a Condo Act update. Last week Dipika Damerla, a newly elected Liberal MPP, introduced a private member’s motion calling on the Ministry of Consumer Services to find alternative forms of dispute resolution in matters between condominium boards and owners. The motion passed although it is not binding on the government.

And Rosario Marchese, an NDP MPP whose Toronto riding includes a significant number of condominiums, has said he will move a private member’s bill updating the Condo Act in May if the government does not introduce something first.

Condos next hit for Best?

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