Barbara Carss
Canadian Property Management
Rare decisions have acute carbon consequences
Daily vigilance is central to achieving operational energy savings, but rare decisions typically have the most acute carbon consequences in buildings.
Canadian Property Management
Overdue property reassessment raises alarm
Ontario’s overdue property reassessment is on hold until at least 2024, leaving many commercial ratepayers with a further wait to realize tax reductions from pandemic-related value erosion.
Canadian Facility Management & Design
5G rollout could bring clutter of antennas
Making buildings smarter could force some aesthetic trade-offs in commercial buildings as 5G services begin arriving on the mid-band and high-band of the spectrum.
Canadian Property Management
Environmental mishaps herald personal liability
Personal liability is a mounting possibility for directors, officers and supervisors of organizations that run afoul of environmental regulators or are on the losing side of civil litigation.
Canadian Property Management
Post-CERS property expense relief announced
A new iteration of property expense relief will be more bountiful for many recipients than recent payouts of the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidiary, but fewer commercial tenants or owner-occupiers will qualify.
Canadian Property Management
Pandemic paperwork piles up with new protocols
Pandemic paperwork is becoming more voluminous for commercial landlords as a growing list of influential tenants ask for proof that building personnel have two valid COVID-19 vaccinations.
Canadian Property Management
Accessibility carries a simple business case
Many commercial real estate operators are making the simple business case for buildings that are functional for all potential users. It’s a quest that can begin with simple investigations, simple low-cost measures and simple mindfulness.
CondoBusiness
Property tax premiums loom in Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia’s new provincial government is signalling looming surcharges for residential property purchasers and owners who pay their income tax in other jurisdictions.
Canadian Property Management
Measurable actions convey diversity resolve
The CREED Council’s 22-member board of directors is influentially placed in senior management roles in property management, development, leasing, finance/investment and various professional services.
Canadian Apartment Magazine
Purpose-built rental pro formas under pressure
Developers are facing escalating material costs, supply chain disruptions and labour shortages in step with climbing vacancies and falling rental rates that were not contemplated 18 months ago.
Canadian Property Management
Investors avidly pursuing industrial properties
Market analysts anticipate more capital flowing into the sector as vacancies tighten and rental rates rise, and they warn that available space is nearing depletion in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal if leasing continues at the recent pace.
Canadian Property Management
A fine-tune for effective benchmarking
The 2021 versions of REALPAC's normalization methodologies for calculating energy- and water-use intensity address issues arising from the COVID-19 pandemic and lower occupant densities in office buildings.
Canadian Property Management
CERS uptake falls short of potential
Removing landlords from the application process hasn’t necessarily made the Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy (CERS) more accessible for commercial tenants experiencing pandemic-related financial stress.
Canadian Property Management
Retrofit funds tied to equity capital prereq
Retrofit proponents unable to contribute at least $6.25 million in equity capital will have to look to third-party interveners in order to tap into the Canada Infrastructure Bank’s $2-billion fund for commercial buildings.
Canadian Property Management
Cold storage gathers investment steam
Cold storage facilities are flagged to deliver robust returns to investors due to the evolution of food retailing, demand for vaccines and other pharmaceuticals, and the thriving outlook for the warehouse/distribution and logistics sector in general.
Canadian Property Management
Heat is on for electricity demand projections
Electricity demand projections through the vaccination rollout period should take two contradictory factors into account, energy management specialists affirm.
Canadian Property Management
Parsing Ontario’s electricity cost allocation
After a year of operational upheaval and more modifications to electricity pricing policies, BOMA Toronto’s annual workshop to address the complexities of the global adjustment had a lot of ground to cover.



















