"If we decline to register, will it be just like the good ole' days / bad ole' days under Ontario's Condominium Act 1998 ?"
1- What compels registration ?
Section 9 of the amended Condominium Act 1998 platforms the new CAO Condo authority to appoint a Registrar.
Section 9.2 then requires every Ontario condominium corporation to file with that CAO Registrar certain Returns :
Returns
9.2 (1) Every corporation shall file with the Registrar the following returns by delivering them to the Registrar in the prescribed manner and within the prescribed time and by paying the applicable fee:
1. An initial return.
2. A turn-over return.
3. An annual return.
4. Other returns as prescribed. 2015, c. 28, Sched. 1, s. 12.
Contents
(2) Each return shall set out the prescribed information as of the prescribed date. 2015, c. 28, Sched. 1, s. 12. . . .
BUT WHAT happens if a corporation simply ignores the whole process ? Just refuses to register ? How serious an offence ?
2 - "Remember how CAFCOR contributor Yvon Piche even coaxed a 2009 confession admitting that the Province had never laid any Provincial Offence charges under section 137 ?" ! !
See below : if assessed, "shall pay"
Has omitting to register & pay been omitted as a section 137 offence ?
At Oct 18/17 from (former Bill 106) Protecting Condominium Owners Act, 2015 :
121. Section 137 of the Act is repealed and the following substituted:
Offences, general
137. (1) A corporation under this Act or any other Act and any other person or entity that contravenes or fails to comply with subsection 43 (1), (3), (4), (5), (7), 55 (1) or 72 (1), section 72.1 or 81, subsection 115 (1), (2), (3), (4) or (9), section 118, subsection 133 (1), section 143, subsection 147 (1), (3), 152 (1), (2) or 161 (2), section 169 or a regulation made under paragraph 4.1 of subsection 177 (1) is guilty of an offence.
Directors and officers
(2) An officer or director of a corporation within the meaning of this Act or any other Act who fails to take reasonable care to prevent the corporation from committing an offence mentioned in subsection (1), is guilty of an offence, whether or not the corporation has been prosecuted or convicted.
. . .
Penalties
(4) A person who is convicted of an offence under subsection (1), (2) or (3) is liable to,
(a) a fine of not more than $250,000, if the person is a corporation within the meaning of this Act or any other Act; or
(b) a fine of not more than $50,000 or to imprisonment for a term of not more than two years less a day, or both, if the person is an individual.
. . . . Compliance order
(6) The court hearing the proceeding may make an order requiring a person convicted of an offence to comply with the provisions of this Act that the person has contravened, if the court has competent jurisdiction to make the order.
Orders for compensation, restitution
(7) If a corporation under this Act or any other Act or any other person is convicted of an offence under subsection (1) or (2), the court making the conviction may, in addition to any other penalty, order the person convicted to pay compensation or make restitution.
- Ask your counsel: Doesn't Section 137 Provincial Offences seem to ignore omitting to register / pay ?
3 - So exactly how does the amended Act empower the CAO new Authority to enforce filings & collect annual payments ?
Wouldn't it be TECHNICALLY a Condo Act 1998 statutory offence to violate that Act's new section 1.29 below, albeit not section 137 Provincial Offence for bad dudes ? :
At Oct 18/17 from revised Condo Act 1998 so c 19
Powers and Duties of Condominium Authority
Forms and fees
1.29 . . . .
Remittance
(6) A corporation that is assessed under subsection (1) shall pay the assessment to the condominium authority in the manner and at the time that the authority specifies. 2015, c. 28, Sched. 1, s. 4.
4 - Failing to register, Ontario condo corporations are actually legislatively barred from "maintaining a proceeding" without prior judicial approval ; ONCAT and Ontario's civil justice systems
see
Condominium Act 1998 S.O.1998 ch 19 https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/98c19
see the Act’s subsection 23.1 "Restriction on ability to sue" 5 -
The bottom line : condo corporations best consult insured legal advice about trying to quietly opt out