F O R B U I L D I N G O W N E R S , A S S E T A N D P R O P E R T Y M A N AG E R S
VOL. 25 NO. 1 • MARCH/APRIL 2018
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CONTENTS 10
16
COVER STORY
20
PEEL PILOTS ACTIVE DESIGN Project credited with increasing stair use and reducing sitting times
IN THIS ISSUE
06
ONTARIO ADDRESSES ELEVATOR AVAILABILITY
10
MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENT & DIVERSITY
Data to drive new standard for adequate service
Planning study scrutinizes affordability in Toronto neighbourhoods
13 16
MISSISSAUGA GROWS UP City embraces shift from single-family to multi-residential form
GTA PRICE PRESSURE Condo market draws investors and owner-occupiers
24 26
ASLEEP TO CLIMATE RISK Little oversight of anesthetic gases with high global warming potential
LANDLORDS SEEK CANNABIS VETO Looming legalization sparks calls for property owners banning rights
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REGULATORY UPDATE
ONTARIO LOOKS T BOOST ELEVA
AVAILABILI Standard schedules to be data driven BY MICHELLE ERVIN
O
ntario is looking to boost elevator availability in multi-storey residential buildings, as well as long-term care and seniors’ homes. In what would be a global first, the provincial government plans to establish a data-based standard for the time it takes to turn around elevator repairs. This measure forms part of an action plan that comes in response to a study commissioned by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority (TSSA) at the request of the Ministry of Government and Consumer Services. The study, produced with support from Deloitte’s public sector strategy team, occurred as concerns surrounding elevator availability mounted. In his final report, study lead Justice J. Douglas Cunningham found that the current state of elevator availability falls far short of ideal. He made 19 recommendations for improving the status quo, including looking
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GTA & BEYOND ■ MARCH/APRIL 2018
into requiring more frequent upkeep for highrisk devices and stepping up the enforcement of existing maintenance standards with new fines. Minister of Government and Consumer Services Tracy MacCharles said the government will be addressing all of the recommendations contained in Justice Cunningham’s report as she announced the action plan earlier this winter. “Our government has growing concerns about seniors and people with disabilities and other mobility issues being unable to get in or out of their condos, apartments, long-term care facility or retirement homes because of unreliable elevators,” she said. “The changes we are proposing would reduce elevator breakdowns by developing new preventive maintenance requirements and expanding enforcement tools.” Min. MacCharles said the government will introduce legislation soon, as it moves
to roll out its action plan in stages. If passed, proposed changes would pave the way for measures including the collection and sharing of data on elevator availability, which is currently sparse. FACETS OF ADEQUATE SERVICE A survey conducted as part of the study found responding condos to have an average elevator availability of 93%, the lowest of all the institutional and residential building types reached and short of the industry target for up-time of 98%. Justice Cunningham’s report calls for a public database showing elevator up-time by address to be created using information volunteered by contractors. In a separate recommendation, he suggested requiring contractors to report service outages that last longer than two days to a regulator and develop plans for bringing elevators back online spelling
REGULATORY UPDATE
TO
ATOR ITY out the respective responsibilities of the contractor and the owner. This approach marks a departure from the two-week deadline for repairing elevators Liberal MPP Han Dong proposed in a private member’s bill last winter. Dong, who was on hand at the press conference to introduce the action plan, welcomed the move to advance his efforts to improve the reliability of elevators. “I’m glad to see that my private members’ bill was an inspiration for the government to take action and that proposed changes are coming,” he said in a press release accompanying the announcement. “The action plan addresses the concerns voiced by those living in our vertical communities.” In addition to proposing a deadline for repairing elevators, Dong’s private member’s bill proposed requiring elevator traffic studies for developments of seven or more storeys to ensure new buildings are equipped with
enough elevators to adequately serve residents. Currently, the only minimum for providing elevators is found in the fire code, which requires residential buildings of six or more storeys to be equipped with at least one elevator for firefighter use. The action plan aims to establish standards for conducting elevator traffic studies and minimums for providing elevators in new buildings of six or more storeys in the building code over the next three years. Stepped up enforcement of existing maintenance requirements is expected to come sooner, with implementation slated for 2019. Specifics such as the size of the fines, which Justice Cunningham suggested could potentially be meted out to both elevator contractor and owner, are slated to be hammered out in regulations in the fall, following consultations with stakeholders.
MAINTENANCE, REPAIRS, ACCESS Min. MacCharles affirmed the government will also be asking the TSSA to review the prescribed schedule for elevator maintenance with an eye toward increasing its frequency. The prescribed schedule for elevator maintenance was relaxed four years ago from a minimum frequency of monthly to quarterly. “Compliance with minimum maintenance standards for safety, shown to signal more effective preventive maintenance practices, is at an all-time low,” Justice Cunningham wrote in his report. In addition to new fines, he recommended raising owner awareness around preventive maintenance, which he said data analysis and stakeholders indicated plays a major role in elevator availability. His report also calls for education for building owners to equip them with the knowledge to secure improved www.REMInetwork.com
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REGULATORY UPDATE
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service through their maintenance contracts. Justice Cunningham also flagged the availability of elevating device mechanics for attention, noting a perception among some building owners that a labour shortage might be contributing to slow repair times. He suggested giving Class T mechanicsin-training a deadline for taking the steps to become Class A mechanics, which are increasingly in demand amid booming highrise construction. Min. MacCharles said the government plans to examine the labour market in consultation with industry this year. Also in line for implementation this year are measures to improve access to elevators for first responders. Justice Cunningham proposed that when firefighter elevators break down, outages lasting longer than a day trigger an obligation that would be added to the fire code for owners to alert their fire department, occupants and supervisory staff. The development of a standard for the time it takes to repair elevators is expected to carry into 2019, which is also when the government aims to assign regulatory responsibility for elevator availability. The TSSA appears to be a likely candidate for the job based on Justice Cunningham’s assessment, but he said further analysis was needed, citing concerns raised by the Technical Standards and Safety Authority that this responsibility could conflict with its existing mandate. “If safety is assumed to take priority over availability in all circumstances, this should not be an insurmountable problem,” he wrote, adding, “It should be noted that there is no empirical evidence that a lack of availability poses a safety risk, when compared with other potential risks monitored by the TSSA. Technical elevator safety is well regulated and managed in Ontario.” ■
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PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
MIXED-USE DEVELOPMENTS MAY
STIFLE DIVERSITY Study scrutinizes and critiques Toronto neighbourhoods BY REBECCA MELNYK
M
ixed-use developments in Toronto are transit-friendly, amenity-rich places to live, work and play, but the very factors that make them desirable are also creating neighbourhoods that are unaffordable for many people. A new study from the University of Waterloo, published in the Journal of the American Planning Association, examined neighbourhoods in Toronto between 1991 and 2006. The research team found that housing in mixed-use zones remained less affordable than housing in the rest of the city, catering mostly to high-income earners working in white-collar professions and shutting out those with lower-wage jobs. “In a moment where the economy has
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GTA & BEYOND ■ MARCH/APRIL 2018
shifted so much to knowledge-based work, which is high wage and high skilled, we need to be thinking very carefully about the other parts of the economy — how all people live or can afford to live in those areas where this is happening,” says Tara Vinodrai, lead author and associate professor in Waterloo's Department of Geography and Environmental Management. As mixed-use developments reinforce a growing income inequality arising from this occupational transformation, governments continue to withdraw investments in affordable housing. The study suggests planners consider a range of policy measures, such as inclusionary zoning, density bonuses and housing trusts
— policies which haven’t seen much uptake in the city for various reasons. MIDDLE CLASS ISSUE “Housing affordability is something that used to be perceived as an issue for the more marginalized community — very low income,” says Markus Moos, lead author and associate professor in Waterloo's School of Planning. “As more and more middle class struggle with affordability, the issue has made its way onto the political platform in recent years. On the upside, it suggests we may see more action on affordable housing policy.” On the downside, he adds, with affordability becoming a middle class issue, there’s the question of whether policies
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INCOME AND HOUSING SECURITY TOP SENIOR CONCERNS Housing requirements for different stages of aging will be top priorities for Canada’s largest seniors’ advocacy organization in 2018. CARP, a national non-profit organization with more than 300,000 members, lists housing affordability and improved living conditions for residents of long-term care homes among the five key issues it plans to champion this year. The need is underscored in two dismaying statistics cited in CARP’s newly released 2017-18 Impact Report. Canadian seniors are suffering homelessness, with more than one quarter of single seniors now deemed to live in poverty, or suffering abuse, as was reported in 23,000 incidents in long-term care homes in just one year. “Providing secure housing is the key to reducing the number of seniors living in poverty,” CARP reiterates. “Those who are housed, but on modest fixed incomes, struggle with affordability.” Among complementary 2018 advocacy priorities, CARP exhorts governments to better protect pensioners when companies go bankrupt and calls for the elimination of age-triggered mandatory withdrawals from registered retirement savings plans. These actions could result in better income and housing security for stillindependent renters and homeowners. Fully 96% of surveyed CARP members agree that Canadian provinces should have guarantee funds for corporate defined benefit pension plans. “We are living longer than ever before, but facing historically low interest rates and the disappearance of defined benefits pension plans. Our oldest seniors are at risk of running out of savings,” CARP warns. This, sadly, often occurs at the time they are most vulnerable and likely to be living in, or on the waiting list for, long-term care facilities — thus CARP’s priority status for adequate funding for supportive environments with appropriately trained staff. Notably, 45% of surveyed members classify the current quality of long-term care in their province as poor or very poor. “Every Canadian deserves to live out their life with dignity, respect and peace of mind, no matter their age or health,” the report asserts. CARP’s fifth priority, promoting fitness, heralds a series of walking events to be held this year. Meanwhile, those running for office in 2018 are advised to take heed “As Canada’s largest advocacy association for older Canadians, we now represent the largest segment of the voting population,” observes CARP’s President, Moses Znaimer. – REMI Network
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PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT will be implemented to help those who have always struggled within the lowincome dimension. One affordability policy doesn’t work for everyone on the spectrum of homelessness to ownership. While inclusionary zoning “isn’t a silver bullet,” according to Moos, Ontario will soon require developers to include a percentage of below-market units when planning mixed-use developments. According to the proposed Ontario legislation on affordable housing, which is still being clarified, this percentage would
temporarily account for five to 10% of building units that have condo title, but "below-market" rates aren't necessarily affordable for all. For its part, the City of Toronto would pay developers 40% of the cost of units or exempt them from funding community necessities like child-care spaces. “There’s also concern it may push up the market rate of housing if developers push up the cost, subsidizing the low-market unit with higher-market prices for the remaining units,” says Moos.
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Such policy could also help address longterm issues like sustainability. “It might start to address other challenges people in cities complain about, like congestion and traffic, because all of a sudden there are more people able to walk to their jobs or use transit, rather than people having to pour in from other places in the city,” says Vinodrai. There are already measures that city planners can use to push developers to provide additional housing, Vinodrai points out. One such policy is density bonuses, where, for example, a developers can add extra storeys if they create on-the-ground amenities like parks. “Municipalities could have stronger teeth on that,” she says. “Cities could say we want you to put in this development, but we would like you to include affordable housing.” AFFORDABILITY SUPPORTS VIBRANCY There is also need for more government investment. Co-op housing, another way to increase the availability of affordable housing as prices go up, often involves lengthy application processes and an average waitlist around four years. They offer a solution, but are not being expanded across Toronto. Neglecting the affordability issue means the city itself suffers. Doing so strays far from Jane Jacobs’ mixed use ideal referenced in the study — the proximity of different social groups in established, walkable neighbourhoods having access to amenities and services. “What Jane Jacobs had in mind when talking about the diversity of neighbourhoods is not what we created when it comes to some homogenous inner-city neighbourhoods of high-rise coffee shops with yoga studios on the bottom,” says Moos. Areas that get too expensive lose the diversity and vibrancy that made them initially attractive to city-dwellers. “We should be concerned for the people who can’t afford it, but also for those who are able to afford it,” says Moos. “Over time, they won’t see the city that drew them there in the first place.” The study by Moos, Vinodrai, Nick Revington, doctoral candidate in the School of Planning at the University of Waterloo and Michael Seasons, urban planner with Dillon Consulting Limited in Toronto, can be found in the Journal of the American Planning Association, in the first issue of 2018. ■
PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
MISSISSAUGA GROWS UP
Focus shifts from single-family to multi-residential as green fields dwindle BY BARBARA CARSS
H
azel McCallion’s endorsement of smart growth was characterized as something of an epiphany at the turn of the 21st century when the then Ontario Minister of Municipal Affairs appointed her to chair a panel on the future direction of regions across central Ontario. Today, this perceived turnabout may trigger corresponding eureka moments about her city. Mississauga is not your parents’ suburb. As Harold Madi, Senior Principal and lead of Stantec’s urban places division, submitted to PM Expo attendees in Toronto last fall, nearly five decades of lower-density development will take some time to fill in to more compact neighbourhoods and pedestrian-oriented commercial streets, but the vitality of the city’s condominium market demonstrates that single-family residential is no longer the default built form. Just 5% or 100 of the dwellings granted development approval in 2016 were single or semi-detached homes, compared to nearly 1,200 apartments and mixed-use units. “Is vertical density resulting in urbanity? It’s a work in progress,” he mused. Madi and co-presenters, Lesley Pavan and Sharon Mittmann from the City of Mississauga’s planning and development department, provided a historical overview and a look at some pending projects in an urban setting that is still very young compared to many similarly sized cities. “Downtown Mississauga was really just a cornfield in the early ’70s,” observed Pavan, the Director of Development and Design
MARKET TRENDS PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
“EARLY PROJECTS HAVE GOT TO BE OF A CERTAIN QUALITY THAT IS GOING TO SET THE BAR.” for the city, which was incorporated from component municipalities in 1974 and now tallies more than 720,000 residents. The seminar title, Mississauga in Transition: Far from Built, reiterates a vision for continued
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GTA & BEYOND ■ MARCH/APRIL 2018
growth even though its green fields are almost entirely built out. Madi — who first arrived in Mississauga as a three-year-old immigrant to Canada and recently joined the city’s urban design advisory panel — traced
a rural/suburban-to-urban trajectory that has occurred in sync with his own passage from childhood to middle age. SETTING THE BAR He tagged FRAM Building Group’s infill project in Port Credit Village and the international design competition and resulting “Marilyn Monroe towers” for Fernbrook Homes/ Cityzen Development Group’s condominium development at Burnhamthorpe Road and Hurontario Street as key projects that have helped overcome resistance to change through design excellence, appropriate fit with surroundings and positive impact on property values. “Early projects have got to be of a certain quality that is going to set the bar,” Madi advised. “We have to get the scale right — do something well and let it infect others.” Similarly, he sees the now 30-year-old City Hall as a bold, postmodernist choice. “If there was an architectural attempt to create a landmark, they succeeded tremendously at that,” he said. Earlier still, the aptly named Square One was the first piece of the puzzle built within 4,000 acres of land that developer Bruce McLaughlin had assembled in an effort to “build a city from scratch”. Arguably, only the typeface in the circa 1970s promotional literature Pavan and Mittmann shared in their presentation would be dated in a modern discussion of urban planning objectives. “When you don’t structure your city’s growth, it sprawls. The most expensive, soul-destroying problems of today’s cities can be traced to urban sprawl. If the community is designed for tomorrow and all the tomorrows to follow, the problems and the waste can be avoided,” McLaughlin’s message states. “Mississauga City will be flexible. It will be expansible. It will have diversity and choice.” Pavan outlined the ensuing combination of municipal and provincially imposed policies that underpin today’s development platform, as well as the role of market forces. Notably, the absence of height restrictions in the downtown might be seen as something of an oversight dating to the time when proposals for 40- or 50-storey towers simply weren’t expected, but, now, it would be politically onerous to try to retroactively impose limitations. Madi suggested the city faced “a moment of truth” as it neared the end of its supply of
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MARKET TRENDS
PRICE
PRESSURES
Condo market draws investors and owner-occupiers
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GTA & BEYOND ■ MARCH/APRIL 2018
MARKET TRENDS
Land for high-rise condominium development was a major component of $23.5 billion in investment property sales in the Greater Toronto Area last year. Altus Group’s overview of 2017 market activity also points to record sales volumes and surging prices of newly built units, creating some condo supply and affordability constraints for 2018.
M
ore than 36,400 new condos were purchased in the GTA last year, up from 29,100 in 2016. Nearly 22,000 of those sales occurred in Toronto, but Peel and York Regions both registered a more than 60% jump in sales volumes from the previous year. Based on the historic pace of sales, Altus analysts calculate there was about a three month inventory of available new units as 2018 began, but that at least a nine-month supply is needed to meet demand.
The average asking price for available new units had soared to $716,000 as of December 2017, a 41% increase from year-end 2016. “While many end-user buyers have been looking to the condominium apartment sector for more affordable new product, some are now starting to be priced out of this segment as well,” the Altus GTA Flash Report observes. In addition to end-user buyers, who are either choosing to live in condos or settling on them when priced out of the single-family
home market, small investors are identified as a key group of purchasers “who have become the de facto providers of new housing supply in the GTA”. Facilitating those small investors are the developers who purchased $8.5 billion worth of residential land last year — a $2.8 billion or 49% increase in value from the previous year. Land zoned for high-density development, primarily in Toronto, represented a $3.1 billion chunk of that total. Altus highlights
SHORT LIST RIVALS UNDERCUT TORONTO ON HOUSING Toronto brings some of the steepest housing costs to the bid for Amazon’s second headquarters. A realtor.com overview of December 2017 median list prices among the 19 American contenders reveals a wide gulf between New York and every other market, while Royal LePage’s fourth quarter 2017 sales statistics suggest Toronto is relatively matched with Los Angeles as the next most expensive cities on the short list. The median list price in New York increased 8.5% over the course of 2017, to reach US $1,244,509 (CAD $1,530,746) in December. Los Angeles saw 5.3% growth in the median list price during the same period, taking it up to US $699,900 (CAD $860,877) by year-end. All other short list rivals posted lower median list prices than Toronto. Toronto-to-U.S. comparisons are somewhat imprecise since Royal LePage cites actual sales values, but the median house price in the Greater Toronto Area was pegged at CAD $837,873 (US $678,677) at the end of 2017 — up 14% since the fourth quarter of 2016. This aggregate number hides fairly significant price variance across the GTA’s many sub-markets, and between single-family and condominium dwellings. At the high end, the median price for a standard two-storey house was more than $1.2 million (US $988,000) in Toronto, but less than half of that, at $560,000 (US $453,000) in Oshawa. The GTA-wide median for a standard condominium unit was $476,421 (US $386,000), ranging from $516,000 (US $418,000) in Toronto to $287,000 (US $232,000) in Oshawa.
After Los Angeles, realtor.com reports a median price of US $550,000 (CAD $676,500) in Washington, D.C., and US $534,659 (CAD $647,000) in Denver. At the low end, the median list price was US $170,900 (CAD $209,000) in Pittsburgh and US $210,000 (CAD $258,000) in Indianapolis last month. Only three of the 49 Canadian markets Royal LePage analyzes — Moncton and Saint John, New Brunswick, and Trois-Rivières, Quebec — posted lower median prices than Pittsburgh. Another four — Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island; Fredericton, New Brunswick; Sherbrooke, Quebec; and Windsor, Ontario — were more affordable than Indianapolis. “From a housing perspective, Pittsburgh, Indianapolis and Raleigh, N.C., all offer relative affordability and less inventory constraints,” observes Javier Vivas, Director of economic research with realtor.com. “New York, Los Angeles, Denver and Boston are markets that have already seen a fair share of growth and inventory challenges.” Meanwhile, growth and inventory challenges define Toronto’s housing market. “We see demand coming from three predominant categories: peak millennials, who are now at the age of home ownership; immigration; and the somewhat less talked about interprovincial migration of households to British Columbia and Ontario from other parts of the country,” says Phil Soper, President and Chief Executive Officer of Royal LePage. www.REMInetwork.com
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MARKET TRENDS
PROSPECTS TO PROSPER Canada’s three largest cities are among 30 global metropolises deemed well positioned to draw investment and sustain a robust real estate market for the long term. JLL’s 2018 City Momentum Index ranks Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal ninth, 19th and 26th on the list of those likely to thrive as the technological economy rapidly emerges. “By investing in and leveraging their strengths in technology, physical and digital connectivity, quality of life and sustainability, they are positioned to maintain their performance into the future of this new competitive landscape,” the newly released report concludes. This fifth edition of the index weighs 46 indicators of short-term market momentum and more lasting socioeconomic fundamentals to chart 131 urban regions, worldwide, that meet JLL’s defining criteria for population, GDP, corporate presence, an international airport and commercial real estate stock and investment levels. Calgary is the only other Canadian city in the index. The top 30 cities are designated in two categories. Future-proofing assesses factors such as the presence of technology firms and prestigious educational institutions, urban infrastructure, applications for international patents, environmental quality and business standards and transparency to gauge the city’s underpinning economic strengths and its ability to nurture highcalibre business and workers. Short-term momentum evaluates evidence of and capacity for population and GDP growth, real estate development, rising rents, hotel room occupancy and retail sales, presence of international retailers, real
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estate sales and investment volumes to identify cities currently enjoying booms. Only Seattle and Singapore make both top-30 lists. Singapore — 26th for short-term momentum and 29th for future-proofing — is projected to record the greatest rental growth of any major international city this year. Seattle — 29th for short-term momentum and 12th for future-proofing — is home to a large number of technology firms, which now account for more than 60 per cent of space demand. Seattle and Bucharest, which is ranked 30th, are the only cities outside Asia-Pacific or Africa to crack the top30 for short-term momentum. There is somewhat more balanced international representation in the future-proofing top30, which includes five cities from AsiaPacific, 10 from Europe and 15 from North America. Toronto’s ninth place standing for future-proofing is partly attributed to its technology sector and its standing as “a global leader in commercializing new technology”, while Vancouver is called “knowledge-intensive” and grouped with similarly sized Austin and Denver as slightly smaller centres “drawing on strong education systems, connectivity and liveability platforms to attract companies and talent”. Ahead of Toronto on the futureproofing list are: San Francisco, Silicon Valley, New York, London, Boston, Los Angeles, Paris and Amsterdam. San Diego falls one place behind Toronto to complete the top 10. The top-10 for short-term momentum are: Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ho Chi Minh City, Pune, Kolkata, Hanoi, Nanjing, Delhi, Hangzhou and Xian.
two notable deals: Great Gulf’s $300-million acquisition of three parcels on King Street West; and Cresford’s $268.5-million deal for five adjoining parcels in Yorkville. Both are higher values than those garnered for the year’s top retail, hotel or industrial deals. The 905 regions saw the greatest share of sales of land to accommodate single-family housing, including more than $1 billion worth in York Region alone. The so-called missing middle may also become more evident soon following $1.6 billion in sales of land zoned to accommodate medium density townhouse and low-rise housing, which was nearly double the 2016 sales value. “This segment is being driven by a growing demand for more affordable ground-oriented housing product,” Altus analysts conclude. Single-family housing trends back that theory as the average asking price of new homes ticked above $1.2 million last year. Renters are contemplating the rising costs of home ownership with caution and/or finding it more challenging to obtain adequate financing for a stake in the market. About one third of renters Altus surveyed are currently saving for a down payment, while 13% said they planned to buy in 2018. “Homebuying intentions remain strong in the GTA, despite the many roadblocks that have been put in potential buyers’ way due to factors such as price escalation in recent years, rising interest rates, tighter lending criteria and additional stress testing,” observes Matthew Boukall, Senior Director at Altus Group. Housing preferences stratify somewhat by age cohort, with those under the age of 35 more likely to opt for a downtown location. A third of surveyed renters of condo units were younger than 35 and one quarter were oneperson households. One in 10 renters of condo units had a landlord — either a company or an individual — located outside Canada, while 40% were immigrants to Canada. Sales values pushed up again in the rental housing sector last year, following a decline in 2016. Durham was the only part of the GTA where apartment sales volume declined from the previous year, but the region was the scene of just 5% of the GTA’s total investment property trades in 2017. ■
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HEALTHY BUILDINGS
REGION OF PEEL PILOTS ACTIVE DESIGN STRATEGIES Project credited with increasing stair use and reducing sitting times BY MICHELLE ERVIN
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HEALTHY BUILDINGS
T
he Region of Peel plans to incorporate active design strategies at other facilities within its portfolio after a successful pilot in two of its administrative buildings reduced average sitting times and increased stair trips and walking activities, report two members of the project team. Treadmill desks — or walk stations, as they called them — were one of the most popular solutions to be introduced through the pilot. Other, low- and no-cost strategies were to apply decals to stairwell doors and supply fewer seats than people in fixed standing meeting rooms. The pilot was aimed at promoting more physical activity and less sedentary behaviour through design, which aligns with the municipality’s 20-year vision for a community that enables its residents to thrive at all ages. It occurred as organizations are increasingly recognizing the impact of the built environment on health and well-being, observed Lee-Ann Kosziwka, a workplace health specialist at the Region of Peel. “Design as a solution to a health problem is not new,” she said, speaking in the IIDEX seminar Changing Course Through Supportive Workplace Design late last year. PUBLIC HEALTH ISSUE RECOGNIZED Kosziwka pointed to the roles of neighbourhood design, sewer infrastructure and clean-water policies in curbing mortality due to communicable diseases in the late 19th century and early 20th century. “Fast-forward to the 21st century and communicable diseases remain low,” she said. “However, rates of chronic diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes, and theC risk factors, such as sedentary behaviour, lackM of physical activity and unhealthy eating, areY increasing at an alarming rate.” CM Kosziwka characterized this as a public health issue, noting campaigns encouragingMY people to adopt a nutritious diet and exerciseCY regularly have failed to stop this trend. What’sCMY more, she said, it has been well-established K that engaging in physical activity off the job can’t undo the negative effects of physical inactivity on the job, which is exacerbated by design features that place everything a worker needs within desk’s reach. The recently launched FitWel certification and WELL Building Standards have acknowledged the importance of the built environment in promoting health in the workplace. The Region of Peel’s pilot may
“THERE’S NO CORPORATE HIERARCHY AT THE PING-PONG TABLE.” have begun as an initiative of the public health department, but it brought together a range of stakeholders, including the facilities, workplace design and innovation team. Nicole Fratipietro, a designer at the Region of Peel, said the pilot targeted office areas, stairwells and outdoor spaces with the goal of identifying strategies that would have applications across the municipality’s portfolio.
products before they were procured in larger quantities. One strategy was to integrate a heightadjustable component into the work surfaces of the traditionally styled desks. Fratipietro said a crank-operated option was ruled out, due to the risk of shoulder injuries caused by repetitive stress, as was a difficult-to-use pinleg option. “We don’t have the resources to go in EMPLOYEES TEST ACTIVE FURNITURE and adjust a surface every time staff want Active furniture was introduced to the office to sit or stand, so we ended up settling with McGregorAllsop_GTA_June_2016_FINAL.pdf 1 desks,” 2016-06-23 10:16 AM electric desks areas in phases, which Fratipietro noted gave electric she said. But the employees the opportunity to test different had limited applications in meeting rooms
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HEALTHY BUILDINGS due to the availability, or unavailability, of floor monuments so this solution was complemented with the addition of counter-height chairs paired with standing-height tables. “For our meeting rooms that had 10-staff capacity, we ended up only providing eight seats,” Fratipietro reported. “This ensured that if we had a meeting of 10, at least two had to be standing.” The walk stations were initially tested in enclosed areas in anticipation that the equipment would generate noise, among other reasons. The walk stations were later moved to the corridor to give them improved visibility. This also exposed them to natural light, and some were positioned in pairs to facilitate walking meetings. “We purposefully called them walk stations because we don’t want people to think it’s a workout machine,” added Kosziwka.
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STEPS TO IMPROVE STAIRWELL USE Next, the project team turned its attention to improving the aesthetics, safety and wayfinding of the stairwells, which starkly contrasted some of the internal staircases being integrated into new offices. “They were stairwells to get from point A to point B in case of emergency — they were not used by staff,” said Fratipietro. “Staff came in, took the elevator, went to their floors and did their daily tasks.” Temporary, and later permanent, signage was posted in the elevator lobbies and above the doors into the stairwells to point staff in the right direction. Door wraps — a low-cost product that Kosziwka said was easy to install, maintain and replace — introduced images intended to entice employees to take the alternative route to move between floors. Rubberized guardrails, grips on the steps and photo-luminescent strips were installed to enhance safety, as were the fire-rated doors, which were specified in a glazed option — another visual cue reminding employees of the option to take the stairs, as Kosziwka pointed out. Bright paint colours were applied to perk up the walls of the landings on each floor, which later provided a backdrop for art installations featuring local landmarks, which were subsequently showcased with new lighting. Similarly, images of employees and their families participating in physical activity were installed along
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HEALTHY BUILDINGS the corridor connecting the stairwells to the main elevator lobbies to enliven the long path. Fratipietro said this exercise engaged employees as the project team called on them to submit photos and vote for their favourites. AMENITIES ATTRACT OUTDOOR ACTIVITY Encouraging employees to spend time outside would prove more challenging at the south administrative building, which is located in an industrial park, than at the north administrative building, which has access to a park. Some of the solutions applied through the pilot came from University of Guelph architecture and design students, who were invited to look at the site plan and make recommendations. Bike shelters were introduced to make it easier for employees to choose an eco-friendly mode of transportation to get to and from work, while adding cardiovascular activity to the start and end of their day. And walking trails were created to give employees an opportunity to increase their step count over the lunch hour, with motivational messages posted along the three paths, which are marked with their distance, steps and time. New outdoor fitness equipment was accompanied with instructions to make it just as accessible to citizens as it is to employees. This was aimed at modelling publicly owned private spaces, or POPS as they are known. An outdoor ping-pong table introduced around the same time brought together co-workers — some formerly unacquainted — for friendly competitions and the occasional meeting. “There’s no corporate hierarchy at the ping-pong table,” observed Kosziwka. Fratipietro said employees wanted to play ping-pong through the winter, so they’ve requested an indoor table, which speaks anecdotally to the success of this solution. The pilot, itself, was measured against established guidelines as well as through employee surveys and observation.
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MEASURES QUANTIFY PILOT IMPACT Pneumatic sit-to-stand desks scored highest among the active furniture on ease of use and work effectiveness in an employee survey. Participants spent anywhere from 12 to 24 fewer minutes sitting per day, on average, according to a mix of self-reporting and booking data. Booking data also revealed that the ‘walk stations’ were the best-used active furniture. The stairwells saw a stampede of new foot traffic following the improvements undertaken during the pilot — infrared sensors recorded 811 more trips per day. Kosziwka added that the upgrades to the stairwells and outdoors spaces during the pilot checked the boxes of most of the recommendations contained in the Center for Active Design’s guidelines. And observation suggested that walking activities had tripled thanks to the changes made to the outdoor spaces. “I know that there is a real desire to demonstrate an improvement to productivity,” said Kosziwka. However, she added, “Don’t feel the pressure with productivity, because there are other ways to evaluate and demonstrate the impact of what you’re doing.” SUCCESSES TO BE REPLICATED Fratipietro credited leadership support, stakeholder collaboration and employee engagement with the success of the pilot. She also said the process of testing different solutions in phases gave the project team an understanding of the reasons certain strategies were effective and others weren’t. The Region of Peel is now applying active design strategies to paramedic and public works facilities. ■
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SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS
ASLEEP TO CLIMATE RISK
Little oversight of high-GWP anesthetic gases BY BARBARA CARSS
A
nesthetics commonly used in medical, dental and veterinary surgery have global warming potential (GWP) ranging from 130 to 2,540 times greater than carbon dioxide (CO2), but are largely overlooked when greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are officially tallied. The gases — desflurane, isoflurane and sevoflurane — are not among the 31 listed in Ontario’s GHG emissions reporting regulation. Nor are health care facilities asked to account for anesthetics in the carbon emissions calculations that public sector entities must make as part of their mandated energy conservation and demand management plans. “The optics aren’t good,” reflects Roger Holliss, Director of Engineering at St. Mary’s General Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario, and past president of the Ontario chapter of the Canadian Healthcare Engineering Society (CHES). “Emissions related to natural gas, regardless of the size of the hospital, have to be reported, but anesthetic gases are exempted. Everyone else who has an obligation to report looks at health care and sees that it’s granted this exemption.” A study published in December 2017 in the international medical journal and news digest, The Lancet Planetary Health, highlights the kind of insight that reporting might reveal. Participating hospitals in Vancouver and Minnesota that relied predominantly on desflurane (GWP 2,540)
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recorded emissions from anesthetics of more than 2,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually. Their counterpart in the United Kingdom, which uses desflurane sparingly due to its higher cost, had anesthetic related emissions of 211 tonnes CO2 equivalent even though it handled a larger volume of surgical cases over the course of the year. “We have been working on a fact sheet on greening the anesthetic gas system,” advises Linda Varangu, Executive Director of the Canadian Coalition for Green Health Care. “There is more than one option for facilities to take — reducing the use, substitutions of lower-GWP anesthetics, capture and recycling. It all takes time and education to get the word out.” HEALTH AND SAFETY PRIORITIES Regulators have historically viewed anesthetic from an occupational health and safety perspective. Requirements for air filtration and containment are set out in widely referenced standards such as CAN/ CSA Z5359 for anesthetic and respiratory equipment. And that’s with good reason. “If it (anesthetic gas) was allowed to circulate in the air in the operating room, it would eventually put the surgical team to sleep,” explains Dusanka Filipovic, President and Vice Chair of Blue-Zone Technologies Ltd., which manufactures and distributes systems for capturing and recovering waste
anesthetics. “It causes impairment that would be something like drinking and driving.” The 2016 update of the CSA standard is the first version to include an informative appendix addressing measures to mitigate emissions to the environment. More illustrative of convention, instructions from the U.S. Occupational Safety & Health Administration advise: “An effective anesthetic gas scavenging system traps waste gases at the site of overflow from the breathing circuit and disposes these gases to the outside atmosphere.” That, too, could be problematic depending on where the vent to the outdoors is located. The gas is heavier than air and will drop to lower surfaces before it is dispersed. “If there are workers on the rooftop, they could be directly exposed to these gases,” Filipovic warns. A CALL FOR INCENTIVES The Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Dianne Saxe, has now turned her attention to the practice and is recommending that funds derived from the provincial cap-and-trade system be used to support more sustainable alternatives. “Unfortunately, Ontario has not been collecting any data on the amount of anesthetics used in the province, nor the rate of adoption of gas capture technologies. Perhaps more importantly, it does not provide any economic incentive for health care facilities to embrace these rather practical methods to reduce emissions,” she observed in her annual progress report, released in late January. Thus far, the Ontario government has channelled funds earmarked for reducing GHG emissions into the Hospital Energy Efficiency Program (HEEP), which, as the name suggests, is solely focused on incentives to promote energy efficiency. Like Commissioner Saxe, CHES Ontario has asked for expanded criteria that would include systems to control and recover high-GWP
SUSTAINABLE OPERATIONS
anesthetic gases, and has received positive feedback from the Ministry of Health and Long-term Care. “It has been on the radar and it’s actually moved up on the list of things that they talk about rolling into HEEP,” Holliss reports. A sizable minority of Ontario hospitals, pegged at about 25 per cent, have already installed recovery systems. (Two Canadian companies, Blue-Zone and Class 1 Inc. are the predominant suppliers of the technology.) At Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre in Toronto, for example, internal estimates attribute approximately 780 tonnes of annual emission reductions to the recapture of anesthetic gas, representing 4 per cent of annual emissions at the vast campus. “Sunnybrook is a Canadian leader in anesthetic gas capture, having partnered with Blue-Zone for the last 13 years,” says Michael Lithgow, the hospital’s Manager of Energy and Climate Change. Sunnybrook is currently a voluntary participant in Ontario’s capand-trade market — an option open to entities with annual emissions of 10,000 to 25,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent — so there is also potential to claim or sell resulting GHG reductions as carbon offsets. In future, this possibility could help more health care operators with the business case for anesthetic gas recovery systems. “Certainly, that would take the edge off the cost,” Holliss says. “It would also depend on where the hospital stands in the grand scheme of the 10,000-tonne threshold.” Regardless, the investment could be a proactive strategy ahead of inevitable requirements to control emissions. “The day is coming soon when hospitals in Ontario are going to be asked to do this,” Holliss predicts.
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AWARENESS SUPPORTS SUSTAINABLE CHOICES 1 2015-11-02 11:31 AM For smaller scale practitioners like dentists and veterinarians, KingNorth_GTA_November_2015.indd less capital-intensive strategies will likely be the preferred option — and that aligns with the Canadian Green Health Care Coalition’s philosophy. “Reducing the use or substituting means we would have less to vent, or capture and treat,” Varangu reiterates. The good news, perhaps, is that the most environmentally damaging anesthetic gas, desflurane, is also the costliest. In comparing the three • Providing dependable, professional, participating hospitals, The Lancet study notes that “higher surgical case volumes can be done at a fraction of the cost” when isoflurane quality assured solutions to any of your (GWP 510) or sevoflurane (GWP 130) are substituted. Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning and “Preferential use of alternative anesthetic agents or strategies (e.g. Refridgeration needs. regional techniques, total intravenous anesthesia) has the potential to dramatically reduce theatre greenhouse emissions,” it states. “A lack of awareness regarding the environmental impacts of anesthetic choices • Cost effective solutions to chiller retrofits, is believed to be the greatest barrier to widespread implementation of low-carbon practices.” replacement and maintenance. Accordingly, the Environmental Commissioner has raised the issue with good timing for the professional standards body for Ontario www.appliedsystemstechnologies.com dentists. It is in the process of a regular review of its standard of practice for sedation and general anesthesia. “Although we have guidelines dealing with anesthesia and guidelines regarding environmental hazards in amalgam waste, 910 Rowntree Dairy Rd. Unit 5 we were not previously aware of concerns being raised about the Woodbridge, ON. Canada L4L 5W4 environmental impact of anesthetic gases,” says Kevin Marsh, Director of Communications with the Royal College of Dental Tel: 905-850-7080 Fax: 905-850-7121 Toll Free: 1-866-572-2784 Email: contact@appliedsystemstechnologies.com Surgeons of Ontario. “This will be brought to the attention of our working group.” ■ www.REMInetwork.com
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REGULATORY UPDATE
LANDLORDS SEEK CANNABIS VETO Looming legalization sparks call for property owner banning rights BY ERIN RUDDY
W
ith the Cannabis Act set to make recreational pot use legal throughout Canada, landlords are demanding the right to ban the divisive substance within their rental units before the law officially takes effect, July 1. According to federal guidelines, Canadians will be allowed to possess and smoke cannabis legally in their homes and may also grow up to four pot plants for personal consumption. While the rules may differ from province to province, in Ontario, residents will only be permitted to consume the substance in “private, self-contained living quarters,” including multi-residential buildings, while all public spaces will be off-limits. Medical cannabis users will be subject to the same restrictions as tobacco smokers. The immediate concern for Ontario landlords stems from the province’s strict tenancy laws that make it illegal to modify a rental lease before that lease comes due. As such, landlords will be unable to regulate marijuana consumption in their apartment buildings with existing tenants — only with those who apply for tenancy after legalization takes effect. This, according to John Dickie, President of the Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations, leaves landlords exposed to a host of aggravations. As he stated in a release to the media: “(The province is) not going to allow marijuana to be smoked in public areas, so where the heck are people going to smoke marijuana? Well they’re going to do it in their apartments. The problem is, just like when they smoke tobacco, the smell
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goes to neighbouring units. Buildings are not hermetically sealed.” Furthermore, some landlords estimate that the cost to clean and deodorize a single apartment will rise considerably at the time of turnover. Chris Seepe, who owns and manages a small portfolio of mid-sized buildings in the GTA, says his current ‘no smoking’ policy was already modified to include cannabis a year ago. “The issue for me isn’t so much about the potential concerns from the diminished capacity of an individual,” he notes, “but that smoking of any kind causes tremendous property damage to a rental unit.” And then there’s the unwanted impacts of growing the plants. As Seepe points out, “Grow ops are known for the significant damage they cause to property because of the high humidity level required to grow marijuana plants. High humidity and warm air is the ideal stewing pot for mould. Given almost 85% of Ontario’s entire purpose-built rental units were built before 1980 and have very little insulation by today’s standards, condensation leading to mould growth is something to take seriously.” ACTION IN OTHER JURISDICTIONS Landlords on the west coast are taking the fight against cannabis one step further, asking that the province follow the lead of Quebec, where residents will be allowed to use the drug recreationally but won’t be permitted to grow it. LandlordBC, representing owners and managers of rental housing in British
Columbia, still isn’t satisfied that will be enough. Currently, the group is pushing for new legislation that would outlaw the smoking of cannabis across all B.C. rental housing, a law that would be a first of its kind in Canada. “LandlordBC is concerned about the negative impact the consumption and growing of recreational cannabis will have on a property and how both activities will infringe on a landlord’s ability to provide safe and secure rental housing to their tenants,” said David Hutniak, CEO, LandlordBC. “Smoking cannabis should be banned anywhere that smoking tobacco is banned. In addition, landlords should be able to ban the smoking of tobacco, or the smoking of cannabis, on their properties.” Like Seepe, Hutniak asserts that growing cannabis in multi-unit or rented dwellings is even more problematic than the act of smoking it. Concerns include: • Safety hazards due to electrical overloading, and excess humidity; • Use of hazardous chemicals, such as pesticides; • Interference with other tenants through strong odours; • Potential liability for the landlord and risk to the tenants and mortgage holder; • Potential cancellation of building insurance or the calling of a mortgage with financially disastrous results for the building owner. ■ ________________________________________ ERIN RUDDY IS EDITOR C A N A DI A N A PA R T MEN T
OF
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