Canadian Property Management - GTA and Beyond May/June 2017 by MediaEdge

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. 24 NO. 2 • MAY/JUNE 2017

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CONTENTS

COVER STORY

SUPPORT FOR STORMWATER CHARGES DRIES UP

ELEVATOR MAINTENANCE NORMS ERODING

Proposed levy would have disproportionately burdened large property owners

IN THIS ISSUE

CONSERVATION STRATEGISTS TARGET CLASS B AND C BUILDINGS BOMA Toronto and Toronto Hydro join forces on outreach programs

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GTA & BEYOND ■ MAY/JUNE 2017

PROPOSED NEW SCHEDULE FOR ELEVATOR REPAIRS MPP's private member's bill focuses on contractors' turnaround times

Regulations cover basic safety standards, but building owners should be more proactive

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May 2017

Deconstructing Ontario’s Fair Housing Plan

Net positive energy office set to rise in Waterloo

The Ontario Government has announced a comprehensive package of measures to help increase the province’s supply of affordable housing and protect renters from what many are calling exorbitant rent hikes.

In Waterloo, Ontario, workers are installing wells for a geo-exchange system that will heat and cool a new office development aiming to be one of the most energy efficient in Canada.

Reliable Elevators Act passes second reading A private member’s bill proposing time limits for elevator repairs passed second reading at the Ontario legislature last month. If it becomes law, the Reliable Elevators Act would require maintenance contractors to restore out-of-service elevators within 14 days in most buildings.

All the Buzz

From the Green Bin

Expert Advice

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Toronto Community Housing in crisis

Commercial electricity customers mull decision

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From funding gaps to leadership questions: the root causes of Toronto Community Housing Corporation’s turmoil.

Many owners/managers of larger commercial buildings will soon have to make a first-time decision about joining Ontario’s Industrial Conservation Initiative.

How to prolong the lifespan of lighting systems Five ways to ensure luminaires last and achieve anticipated savings.

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PLUMBING/PIPE SYSTEMS

SUPPORT FOR STORMWATER CHARGE DRIES UP Toronto backs off separate levy that would disproportionately impact large property owners BY MICHELLE ERVIN

he prospect of a separate stormwater charge on Toronto utility bills may have washed away with the runoff from May’s record rain fall — at least for now. City Council recently accepted advice from Toronto Water staff who, citing the challenges of roll out, advised against the move in a report. The decision represents a win for the commercial real estate industry. The Real Property Association of Canada (REALPAC) has actively opposed a separate stormwater management charge. Failing that, REALPAC had asked for measures that would mitigate the impact of the move, such as a cap on the charge and the phasing of its roll out. The possibility of introducing a separate stormwater charge dates back to 2012, when a staff report raised it as one of several options for easing capital funding pressures at Toronto Water. In late 2015, City Council asked staff to build a funding

GTA & BEYOND ■ MAY/JUNE 2017

model around a separate stormwater charge and develop an implementation plan. As proposed, the separate stormwater charge would have allocated stormwater management costs to properties based on their contribution to runoff, as measured by the area of their hard surfaces. Properties would have been grouped into one of four categories: residential; apartment or condominium building; industrial, commercial or institutional; and large properties. The first three categories would have been further broken down into tiers based on property size, and property owners in each tier would have paid a flat rate assigned to their tier. Owners of properties spanning more than one acre would have paid an individual rate based on an actual analysis of their hard surfaces. The rate would have worked out to $1.31 per square metre. Staff arrived at this figure by evenly spreading the $275-million cost

of the stormwater management program in 2019 across the city’s 21,025 hectares of hard surfaces. Creating a dedicated stream to fund stormwater management costs would have plunged the water rate 20 per cent. However, it also would have created some big winners and big losers as it introduced a new line item on utility bills for stormwater, with some property owners projected to see significant cost savings and others projected to see significant cost increases. As a group, industrial, commercial and institutional property owners would have seen their funding contribution increase by one per cent, or $3 million, while apartment and condominium building owners would have seen their funding contribution fall as a group, by 12 per cent, or $33 million. Residential and large property owners would have borne the brunt of the funding contribution increases

PLUMBING/PIPE SYSTEMS

as groups, absorbing increases of five and six per cent, or $14 million and $16 million, respectively. When those numbers are broken down by the individual property owner, the cost increases and decreases on water bills with a separate stormwater charge could have been extreme, which is what caught REALPAC’s attention. “If you have a smaller parcel downtown, you’re doing to see a reduction sometimes as high as 20, 25 per cent in your overall water costs,” said Brooks Barnett, manager of government relations and policy at REALPAC, speaking in advance of the Toronto Water staff report advising against a separate stormwater charge. “But if you’ve got a larger horizontal property in one of the northern wards in the city, with a lot of parking or a lot of impermeable space — so commercial, retail, industrial even — you’re going to see huge increases, to the tune of 25 per cent in some cases.”

By Toronto Water’s estimate, four per cent of large property owners would have seen their utility bills spike by more than $50,000. The staff report included an extreme case in which a 30.76-squarehectare commercial property that consumed 94,747 cubic metres of water annually would have seen its water costs soar 79 per cent under a separate stormwater charge, from $371,200 to $633,588. If the City had proceeded with a separate stormwater charge, REALPAC would have been looking for a cap of $100,000 on the stormwater charge, to moderate these extremes, as well as phasing to soften the impact on the hardest hit property owners. Toronto Water had contemplated phasing in the stormwater charge over four years starting March 1, 2019. The staff report proposed that, if adopted, the charge roll out in increments of 25 per cent, reaching 100 per cent in year four. That would have required the water rate to be increased roughly 3.5 per cent each year to cover the difference between the cost of stormwater management. REALPAC had also recommended raising the credit of up to 50 per cent proposed as an incentive for large property owners to reduce their contribution to runoff. Implementing features such as bioswales and tailings ponds could have otherwise proven too expensive for large property owners to consider. “If you have a mall, there are only so many things you’ll be able to do on site to mitigate the runoff that will be caused by the impermeability of your property,” said Brooks. “So does it make sense to invest in all of these mitigators when the cost of doing that is so high and the money that you’re going to get back, even if you do it, is less than the actual cost?” While Toronto Water clearly heard the concerns of the commercial real estate industry, they may not have been the most compelling arguments for backing off of a stormwater charge. The staff report relied on four reasons for recommending that the separate charge be shelved for now.

Toronto’s school boards signaled their plans to appeal to the province for an exemption, which would have poked an estimated $10-million hole in the proposed cost recovery schedule. What’s more, there are no tools available to the municipality to ensure that tenants and home owners see the savings that were expected to be captured by apartment and condominium buildings, which members of the public raised concerns about. Members of the public also expressed that the method of grouping properties in tiers based on size would be unfair to certain property owners, such as owners of small homes on large lots. Staff found that analyzing hard surfaces on a property-by-property basis is currently too costly and impractical, outside of large properties. So is extending incentives to home owners who take steps to reduce runoff on their properties, another request that came up during consultations. “The principle of a stormwater charge as a funding mechanism for the City’s stormwater management program remains an option for the City in the future,” staff stated in the report, “but due to the issues listed above, staff do not recommend its implementation at this time.” While staff was willing to leave the door open to a separate stormwater charge, support for such a move dried up at executive committee and City Council. Executive committee voted to receive the staff report for information at its meeting May 16, rejecting a handful of other recommendations. City Council voted to confirm this decision at its meeting May 24. Staff had suggested having budget committee receive updates during budget season on technology that could eventually make it possible to evaluate properties for their contributions to stormwater runoff, which would overcome at least one of the implementation challenges. Staff further suggested finding ways to encourage owners of large properties that are relatively low consumers of water, considering their size or potential contribution to runoff, to practice stormwater management. ■ www.REMInetwork.com

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

CONSERVATION STRATEGISTS TARGET CLASS B AND C BUILDINGS BOMA Toronto and Toronto Hydro join forces on outreach programs BY BARBARA CARSS

onservation keeners and stragglers are both vital if Ontario is to meet the ambitious target to cut 7 million megawatt-hours (MWh) from provincewide electricity consumption before 2021. These seemingly divergent constituencies will be key to sustaining performance in buildings that are already energy-efficient and capturing unexploited savings in buildings where few or no conservation and demand management (CDM) incentives have been deployed to date. Toronto Hydro and the Building Owners and Managers Association (BOMA) of Greater Toronto have joined forces on strategies to reach owners/managers in both categories. Together, the two organizations will soon launch a second iteration of the popular Race to Reduce — which inspired participating owner-tenant teams in the GTA to an impressive 12% reduction in energy use in the 2011-15 period — now rebranded as race2reduce. They also plan to have an emissary on the job as early as this summer to proactively target the city’s Class B and C commercial buildings. “Our preliminary analysis reveals there are about 800 buildings within Toronto Hydro’s service area that could participate in Save on Energy programs, but are not participating,” reports Bala Gnanam, director of sustainable building operations and strategic partnerships with BOMA Toronto. “That’s a significant population

GTA & BEYOND ■ MAY/JUNE 2017

of untapped customers. Definitely, there is an opportunity to find savings there.” FACILITATING INCENTIVE PROGRAMS BOMA Toronto is now accepting applications for a conservation consultant — a position that will largely replicate the outreach work roving energy managers perform for many of Ontario’s electricity utilities. It’s expected to be something of a hybrid role, calling for marketing savvy to engage uninitiated building owners/managers, technical expertise to identify energysaving measures that could have favourable paybacks, and project management skills to steer proponents through application and reporting processes.

For Toronto Hydro, a conservation consultant specifically tasked with bringing more commercial buildings on board is another step toward achieving its mandated 1.6-million-MWh share of the provincial conservation target. The new partnership continues tag-team efforts begun in 2007-10 when BOMA Toronto piloted what later became province-wide CDM incentives for the commercial real estate sector, and leverages BOMA’s profile as a sponsor of education and advocate for the industry’s interests. “We will basically be an enabler,” Gnanam says. “Typically, the Class A buildings are way ahead. Class B and C are the ones with the resource constraints. So

ENERGY MANAGEMENT

role. Initially, there may be a lot of savings found, while the sustained savings come from the understanding they develop of the facility’s function.” CDM strategists also plan to spread and reinforce this message through the new race2reduce challenge. BOMA Toronto is aiming to have at least 100 buildings enrolled ahead of the program launch on June 6th, but more are expected, and certainly welcome, to sign up in the coming months. Participating teams will officially set off toward the goal — a collective 10% reduction in energy use over a course of three years — in January 2018. BOMA’s new conservation consultant is expected be both a recruiter and a coach — encouraging more Class B and C buildings to join in and counselling all teams on energy-saving strategies. Looking to past experience, organizers also expect the line between team rivalry and sharing of best practices will be fairly porous. ■

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SUSTAINING ENERGY SAVINGS The Save on Energy program categorizes energy managers as part of the “process” of CDM. First introduced in the 2011-2014 suite of incentives, funding for energy managers has been a successful carryover into the 2015-2020 term. Roving energy managers have conventionally been employees of local distribution companies (LDCs) who work, free of charge, with multiple smaller or midsized customers to find energy efficiency improvements in their operations. Energy managers are expected to hit a minimum threshold for energy savings across their client base. In turn, these clients must commit to invest some of their own capital in energy efficiency measures, relying on Save on Energy incentives for no more than 70% of the cost of projects. This is the approach BOMA Toronto’s conservation consultant will take, with funding for the position coming from Toronto Hydro. Meanwhile, larger customers can be subsidized to hire their own in-house energy manager. This funding will either come from an LDC or, in the case of a business that operates facilities in more than one LDC’s jurisdiction, directly from the Independent Electricity System Operator.

“One of the best ways for companies to reduce their operating costs and therefore increase a property’s value is to implement energy savings initiatives, but the challenge is that energy savings are not necessarily a primary focus for any one individual in the organization. The energy manager program allows a company to hire an expert who can exclusively focus on generating savings,” says Andrew Pride, an energy management consultant who was an influential proponent of the program in his previous role as vice president of conservation with the now-dismantled Ontario Power Authority. “History has shown the savings are tangible and other benefits, such as better systems and comfort, usually come in parallel.” “Energy managers are part of the philosophy of continuous improvement,” concurs Jennifer Grado, Toronto Hydro’s lead on CDM business development. “The learning curve is intrinsic to the

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rather than doing this on their own, they will have access to BOMA’s resources.” Although an engineering degree and/or certified energy manager (CEM) accreditation is a prerequisite for BOMA Toronto’s new position, there will be more liaising than hands-on technical work. The conservation consultant will conduct an initial walk-through audit — a good first step to gauge what’s expected to be abundant potential for low-cost and no-cost improvements in Class B and C commercial buildings — then facilitate the next steps. BOMA’s own roster of allied members with energy management expertise is a good example of its resources and the connections its new consultant will be well placed to coordinate. The work will also have something of a grassroots organizer component since it will entail meeting and building relationships with owners/managers who haven’t previously been involved in industry associations. “As we connect with this segment of the buildings sector, it provides exposure for BOMA’s education role so we can promote other best practices,” Gnanam adds.

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RAISING SERVICE STANDARDS Private member’s bill proposes time limits for elevator repairs BY MICHELLE ERVIN

an Dong hopes to raise service standards for an essential piece of equipment in high-rise communities. The Liberal MPP for Trinity-Spadina, a riding growing rapidly with the crush of new condos, introduced the Reliable Elevators Act into the Ontario legislature this spring. The private member’s bill proposes to set time limits for elevator contractors responding to service calls. If it’s adopted, elevators in long-term care and retirement homes would have to be repaired within seven days and within 14 days in most other buildings. The bill also proposes to require elevator traffic studies as part of building permit applications for developments of seven or more storeys. These studies would ensure high-rise communities have enough elevator capacity, even during service outages. Dong said he was inspired to act after hearing that it took first responders an hour to get a senior who was experiencing

GTA & BEYOND ■ MAY/JUNE 2017

chest pains to the hospital because the freight elevator in her building was down — and had been for some time. Through consultation with his constituents, he learned that lengthy outages of this equipment was a widespread issue. “Not having reliable elevator service poses a threat to health and safety, and as a property owner and tenant, it also infringes on your right to access your home,” said the MPP. Constituents, contractors and politicians of all stripes have come out in support of the Act since it was introduced. But some legislators added the caveat that the bill would need work at committee, with a few suggesting that building owners and landlords should share the burden for the reliability of elevators. At the standing committee on regulations and private bills, members will have a chance to hear from stakeholders, including elevator contractors. Contractors have cautioned that, without changes, the bill could have unintended consequences.

OWNERS AND TENANTS BACK BILL Property owners and tenants who have dealt first-hand with elevator outages have joined Dong at press conferences to publicly back the bill. Kevin Vuong, chair of the Southcore Community Association, said he hopes to see the proposed legislation become law. Vuong’s six-year-old condo building has experienced multiple elevator outages despite having a maintenance contract in place. “In the morning, our residents were having to waiting for three or four jampacked elevators to pass by before trying to cram themselves in, just to get to work,” he said at an April 13 press conference. “We brought in an independent auditor to assess our elevators to find out that the maintenance that our community was paying for was not being completed.” Vuong said the proposed legislation would give building owners the tools to hold elevator contractors responsible for the reliability of elevators.

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The elevator issues he experienced are not isolated to his building, nor are they isolated to the Southcore community. Gabriela Gonzalez shared the experience of her dad, Lazaro, who is very ill, has frequent medical appointments and uses a wheelchair. C “He lives in the 21st floor of this rental building in North York, and in many, many M occasions, both elevators have been out Y of service,” Gonzalez said at the April 13 CM press conference. “And you can imagine he needs to go to hospital for, literally, life-MY saving procedures, and he’s not able to goCY to the hospital.”

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QUALIFIED SUPPORT IN SECOND READING K During second reading, Minister of Government and Consumer Services Tracy MacCharles said she agreed that more should be done, pointing to existing obligations under the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act. Those obligations include documenting accommodation plans and posting notices when elevators go out of service. John Yakabuski, the Progressive Conservative MPP for Renfrew-NipissingPembroke, said during second reading that he was concerned that holding contractors alone accountable for keeping elevators up and running could make it harder for older buildings to secure contracts. “I’d like to see some of that responsibility for non-functioning or non-working elevators placed on the ownership of the buildings, not just the elevator contractors,” he said. Similarly, Peter Tabuns, the NDP MPP for Toronto-Danforth, suggested during second reading that the bill should also protect residents from landlords who neglect elevator maintenance. “There may well be operators of buildings, landlords and condo corporations who… may not, in fact, have put in place the maintenance contracts that are required, or put in place the reserve funds to buy parts to make sure that if repairs are necessary, obsolete parts can be changed out very quickly,” said Tabuns. Since then, Minister of Housing Chris Ballard has introduced the Rental Fairness Act, which includes provisions that would stall the approval of above-guideline rent increases until landlords cleared any outstanding work orders relating to elevators.

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"I’D LIKE TO SEE SOME OF THAT RESPONSIBILITY FOR NONFUNCTIONING OR NON-WORKING ELEVATORS PLACED ON THE OWNERSHIP OF THE BUILDINGS." At his April 13 press conference, just before second reading, Dong said that he would be “open to constructive suggestions and even amendments” if his bill proceeded to committee. The governing Liberals have the numbers to decide votes as the bill moves forward, and the MPP said many of his cabinet colleagues had expressed their support, as had the premier. INDUSTRY CONCERNS ABOUT UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES Doug Guderian, a board member of the Canadian Elevator Contractors Association (CECA), said CECA supports the goal of improving the reliability of elevators. But he added that, as it’s written now, the bill could increase costs and even cause delays in elevator repairs. “Currently we repair most elevators within a day, but this legislation shifts the elevator contractor’s priority from repairing the elevator to documenting the cause of the shutdown, to limit liability, since the proposed legislation carries some pretty significant consequences,” said Guderian. The proposed legislation would establish the time limits for elevator repairs via the Consumer Protection Act. Individuals and corporations convicted of offences under the Act face maximum monetary penalties of $50,000 and $250,000, respectively. As the bill heads to committee, CECA will be watching for provisions that deal with clients with unpaid accounts and elevator work that takes longer than 14 days to complete. Guderian cited “acts of God,” such as flooding, and planned modernizations, which can span four to eight weeks, as examples. Dong acknowledged concerns about these types of extenuating

GTA & BEYOND ■ MAY/JUNE 2017

circumstances, which could be addressed with an exemption clause. The MPP also recognized the role played by independent contractors, who have taken exception to media accounts of an industry overshadowed by four big companies. “I want to take this opportunity to also send out a message to independent contractors, especially those that are taking their job seriously and doing their best to ensure reliability of the elevators they look after,” said Dong at the April 13 press conference. “I want to thank them, and I want them to understand that this is a great opportunity for them to share best practices, to bring the industry to a unified standard so customers, ultimately, will benefit.” The big four contractors may represent a sizable share of the market for the manufacture and installation of elevators, but Guderian estimates that those same contractors claim only 40 per cent of the market for the maintenance and repair of elevators. The Technical Standards & Safety Authority (TSSA) counts 250 licensed elevator contractors in Ontario, including contractors that provide single services such as elevator rescues. Guderian pegs the number of contractors that provide maintenance and repairs in the province closer to 60, excluding small, two to threeperson operations. REASONS FOR REPAIR DELAYS MURKY There are several reasons why quick elevator fixes may get dragged out. Guderian pointed to the move by some companies to a low-cost service model, the results of which may only now be materializing. “About three years ago, 2013, the legislation changed so that elevators only had to be maintained quarterly as opposed

to monthly,” he said. “I suspect that has had an effect on the reliability of elevators.” The elevator industry is also the busiest it’s ever been by Rob Isabelle’s estimation. Isabelle, chief operating officer at KJA Consultants, said the number of service technicians entering the field has fallen behind demand. At present, the TSSA says there are roughly 4,000 licensed elevator mechanics in Ontario. Meanwhile, Isabelle said demand has been propelled by the pace of new construction, retrofits in buildings due for modernization and a recent TSSA requirement to upgrade elevators with single-speed controls. Another scenario in which elevator repairs can get delayed is when elevator contractors have to order hard-to-source replacement parts for decades-old elevators, which he said the legislation should take into account. The impact of out-of-service elevators is felt more in buildings where there are fewer elevators, Isabelle observed. The elevator traffic studies included in Dong’s proposal as an amendment to the Building Code Act evaluate quality of service based on the estimated average wait time for elevators during peak periods, he explained. Fifty seconds is the targeted maximum for residential buildings. “Fifteen years ago, we would rarely see a residential developer have a number higher than 50 seconds,” said Isabelle, “whereas now it’s common to see developers pushing that number higher.” A SIMILAR PROPOSAL AT CITY HALL At Toronto City Hall, a similar proposal for time limits on elevator repairs is due to move forward later this year, after getting delayed by urgent regulatory work relating to ride-sharing apps and short-term rentals. Councillor Kristyn Wong-Tam, who represents Toronto Centre-Rosedale, asked city staff to investigate service standards for fixing elevators in June 2014 as part of a comprehensive property standards review. Coun. Wong-Tam challenged the oneand two-week windows proposed in Dong’s private member’s bill. “For some people who are living with mobility challenges, or even parents with strollers or seniors with heavy grocery bags, it’s simply too long,” she said. ■

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GOING DOWN?

Decline in elevator service linked to changes that put greater onus on building owners for systems upkeep BY RAY ELEID

levator consultants often get asked, “What’s wrong with the elevator industry?” It’s apparent that changes in the industry have resulted in lower quality of products and services, but no one seems to understand why. Unfortunately elevator companies often take the blame. In reality, there are many changes that have occurred over the last 20 years that have caused a shift in the way the elevator industry approaches maintenance. Cost pressures, new technology and regulatory reforms have converged to create an environment where building owners and managers bear greater responsibility for the upkeep of these systems. RISING LABOUR COSTS While the cost of labour has continued to increase, the price of maintenance has either decreased or stayed flat as smaller operators with lower overhead compete with multi-nationals. At the same time, managers of elevator companies are under pressure to keep profits up. By reducing its number of mechanics, the branch can meet the expected margins by having fewer staff do more work. Elevator mechanics work on routes where they maintain a number of elevators each day or week, so managers eliminate mechanics by increasing the number of elevators on the other routes slightly, distributing them to various remaining routes using a method called “route loading.” As the routes have gotten bigger and bigger, route loading has become difficult to manage as mechanics struggle to keep up with the number of elevators they have to maintain. With shorter and shorter timelines to complete their work as

elevators have been added to their routes, elevator mechanics don’t have time to do simple maintenance tasks and rebuild broken components. UPSELL RATHER REPAIR At the same time, elevator manufacturers have changed their systems to further increase revenues. Rather than sending adjusters (or troubleshooters) to sites to assist mechanics with repairs, they started

sending sales associates to upsell a new system or modernization to the building owner. This way the elevator company can make higher revenues from these sales calls. While this upsell system is lucrative for elevator companies, it has a few downsides for the industry as a whole. For one, the upsell isn't always guaranteed, as some owners refuse to pay for upgrades or for expensive maintenance contracts. This results in a higher demand for

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CHANGES TO REGULATIONS When advanced technology such as machine room-free elevators arrived in Canada, regulators moved away from specifying the frequency of maintenance visits. Instead, regulators gave elevator manufacturers more leeway to determine the maintenance cycles and procedures for new equipment, which was increasingly lowmaintenance on the one hand but increasingly sophisticated and unique on the other hand. To mitigate the potential safety risk this posed to passengers, regulators adopted the Maintenance Control Program (MCP) found in the safety code for elevators and escalators code (AMSE A17.1-2013/CSA B44-13). However, it remains up to individual jurisdictions to adopt the standard. The MCP has been in effect in Ontario since 2014. Monthly maintenance visits changed to quarterly visits in some jurisdictions and to semi-annual visits in others. The elevator contractor ultimately dictates the frequency of visits, within the limits of some jurisdictions, which sometimes dictate the minimum number of visits.

MAINTENANCE VERSUS SAFETY What has this meant for owners? While the regulator provides for basic safety standards, anything beyond that (e.g. preventative maintenance and reliability) is now the responsibility of the owner. It’s 14-08-08 11:25 AM important that building owners and managers understand elevator maintenance has nothing to do with regulatory requirements. One deals with safety, while the other deals with reliability. There is no question these changes have caused a variety of issues in the Canadian elevator industry. It used to be standard operating procedure to fix a broken elevator, to dispatch an adjuster (troubleshooter) to a site to rebuild a door operator or adjust a selector, and to dispatch a crew first thing in the morning to an elevator shutdown that occurred the night before. As elevator companies adopt new technology and move toward maintenance-free systems, building owners and managers have to evolve as well. They now need to implement their own preventative maintenance programs for elevators and increase communication with elevator companies, particularly in the areas of callback monitoring, maintenance tasking and regulatory compliance. Ultimately, if the building owners and managers do not take these steps, the struggles they are having in regards to preventative maintenance and reliability will continue. ■ ______________________________________________________________ RAY ELEID, P.ENG, MBA, IS A CONSULTING ENGINEER. AS A GRADUATE ELECTRICAL ENGINEER, HE HAS WORKED FOR TWO INTERNATIONAL ELEVATOR COMPANIES, ONE NATIONAL ELEVATOR COMPANY AND CANADA’S LARGEST ELEVATOR CONSULTING FIRM. RAY HAS MORE THAN 27 YEARS OF ELEVATOR-RELATED EXPERIENCE IN VARIOUS CAPACITIES AS AN ELEVATOR MECHANIC; MAINTENANCE SUPERVISOR; TRAINING COORDINATOR FOR NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT; CONSTRUCTION AND MODERNIZATION SUPERVISOR; BRANCH MANAGER; OPERATIONS MANAGER; AND NOW AN ELEVATOR CONSULTANT.

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