Source: https://www.remonline.com/a-landlord-tenant-privacy-quiz/

All private businesses across Canada, including residential landlords and real estate brokerages, will be impacted by the latest changes to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) beginning Nov. 1. PIPEDA is Canada’s federal private sector privacy law that sets out the ground rules for how businesses, including landlords, must handle personal information in the course of their commercial activity. PIPEDA was significantly amended when the The Digital Privacy Act received Royal Assent in June 2015.

Under PIPEDA, landlords must:

– Obtain a tenant’s consent to collect, use or disclose a person’s personal information.
– Identify the reasons for collecting the personal information before collection and only ask for the limited information needed for what a reasonable person would consider appropriate to the circumstances.
– Provide an individual with access to the personal information the holder has about the individual and allow them to challenge its accuracy.
– Only use a tenant’s personal information for the purposes for which it was collected.

The time limit for PIPEDA court applications changed from 45 days to one year.

As of Nov. 1, PIPEDA will include a mandatory requirement for organizations to give written notice to affected individuals and to the commissioner about privacy breaches and to maintain records for 24 months about each breach.

All businesses (and landlords of every size) must ensure that personal information is protected by appropriate safeguards including physical measures (locked filing cabinets, restricting access to offices, alarm systems), technological tools (passwords, encryption, firewalls) and organizational controls (security clearances, limiting access to a “need-to-know” basis, staff training, agreements).

You say you knew all this already? What about the case where a landlord and tenant had a verbal tenancy agreement (permitted under the RTA) to allow the tenant to grow up to four cannabis plants but the landlord discovered 60 plants? Here’s the answer.

The full implications of PIPEDA to Canadian businesses would require possibly a small book to analyze the obligations for every type of small business. My personal focus is on residential “landlording”, which includes Realtors who assist residential property investors, so here’s a 20 Question Landlord-Tenant Privacy test:

1. Do you need a tenant’s SIN number for most things?
2. Do you need permission to capture a tenant’s face on a surveillance camera?
3. Do you need written permission to do a credit check?
4. What minimum information is needed to do a credit check?
5. Is it against the law to demand a tenant’s SIN number?
6. Can you deny a tenancy applicant because they didn’t give you their SIN number?
7. Can you use the SIN as a general tenant identifier, for example in your accounting system?
8. Can a landlord ask for a driver’s licence, tax information, pay stubs?
9. Can you look into a tenant’s background by looking at social media postings or calling another landlord?
10. Can you put a tenant’s name on a “bad tenant” list?
11. Can you verbally disclose bad tenant behaviour to other landlords, for example a phone reference?
12. Can you take pictures of a tenant’s apartment and contents if you suspect a tenancy agreement breach?
13. Can you set up surveillance cameras in your building that capture tenant faces?
14. Can a tenant ask what information you hold about them?
15. Can other tenants collect information on a tenant?
16. How long can you retain a tenant’s information?
17. Is there a prescribed process for personal information destruction?
18. Can you disclose personal information to pursue a debt?
19. Can police agencies demand tenant information from you?
20. Can police agencies demand the landlord allow them entry to a tenant’s unit?

Short (and incomplete) answers:
1. No.
2. Yes, but can be implied.
3. Yes.
4. Name, address, date of birth.
5. No law currently prevents landlords from asking for a SIN for purposes such as identification.
6. No.
7. No.
8. Privacy law doesn’t prevent such requests but information must be fully protected.
9. Informal checks are a collection of personal information – permission required, privacy laws apply.
10. Not to an unregulated or ad hoc list.
11. No.
12. Strict rules apply.
13. Strict rules apply.
14. Yes.
15. Generally, no.
16. No prescribed period but not indefinitely.
17. No but “must be done appropriately”.
18. Strict rules apply. Disclosure to a tenant’s family, co-workers or on social media is not allowed.
19. Strict rules apply, specific documentation required.
20. Maybe, if police declare it an emergency. Otherwise, warrant usually required or 24-hours’ notice to tenant. Strict rules apply.

Now, be honest with yourself: how well did you score? More importantly, do you have all of the above risk exposures covered in your Rental Application form and Standard Lease appendix B clauses?
 

Source: https://mailchi.mp/7bc2bab1cd7e/office-space-available-downtown-vacancy-rates?e=6f1f3fb3a5

There are many ways to gauge how an economy is doing. One way is to look around a city’s downtown to get a feel for the “hustle and bustle”. A related, but more objective measure, is the office vacancy rate.

According to this measure, Calgary is still reeling from the recession. The city has a downtown office vacancy rate of 27.8 per cent. Edmonton is faring better but still not great, at 15.7 per cent.

There are two main factors affecting these rates. The first is the amount of new space coming on the market thanks to construction. The second is the demand for office space.

In this sense, Calgary has been hit with a double blow. Prior to the recession, the red hot economy fuelled a construction boom. That, combined with layoffs in the oil sector, has pushed the vacancy rate from about ten per cent before the downturn to its current elevated level.

Edmonton experienced a similar situation. A number of major new building projects added to the available office space during the downturn. Edmonton has seen its vacancy rate fall by about five percentage points over the last year but the completion of the giant 69-storey Stantec Tower might cut into these gains.

The silver lining of a high office vacancy rate is that businesses in need of space have more options in terms of price and quality. Nonetheless, the stubbornly high vacancy rates in Alberta’s two largest cities point to the slow nature of the economic recovery.
 

Source: https://mailchi.mp/713be547dd40/the-owl-atbs-perch-explores-higher-education-in-new-podcast?e=6f1f3fb3a5

From learning about the human condition to encountering different perspectives to developing critical thinking skills, there is a wide range of benefits associated with post-secondary education, but getting a well-paying job afterward is often at or near the top of the list.

According to the 2016 Census, the average employment income of Albertans age 25 to 64 was around $47,000 for those with less than a high school education. Completing high school is associated with a $7,800 bump in average employment income. Multiplied by just five years, that’s $39,000 of additional income.

Average income goes up even further among Albertans who have completed a post-secondary program of some kind. Average employment income is highest among those with a university degree, followed by Albertans who learned a trade and those with a college diploma. The annual earnings gap between Albertans with less than high school and those with a degree above the bachelor level is a whopping $53,000.

Completing a post-secondary program requires investing a significant amount of time, energy and money and there is no guarantee that it will lead to a well-paying job. With that said, the higher level of employment income associated with having a post-secondary credential suggests that it is a worthwhile investment.
 

Source: https://www.mortgagebrokernews.ca/business-news/kelowna-and-edmonton-set-to-be-hot-spots-in-cannabis-real-estate-remax-249157.aspx

Two cities in Western Canada have been named the next commercial real estate “hot spots” for the cannabis market, according to a report.

Real estate firm RE/Max Commercial says that Kelowna, B.C., and Edmonton are both expected to see positive commercial growth in the coming months as a result of cannabis legalization.

Prices for commercial real estate in the southern B.C. city are anticipated to see an uptick, as approval for cannabis retail licences will be “extremely competitive” amid high demand once the substance becomes available.

Kelowna, which is located in the Okanagan Valley, has already identified more than 900 potential zoned sites for dispensaries.

Lease rates for industrial spaces in the area are also expected to rise as marijuana companies vie for more space to house their operations, says the annual Commercial Investor report.

This increase comes after Kelowna’s real estate market saw an eight per cent decrease in total sales value for its commercial property year over year.

Meanwhile, it is anticipated that vacancy rates will continue to drop and lease rates will rise moderately for the remainder of the year in Edmonton thanks to the arrival of Aurora Cannabis.

New construction, particularly in the Leduc and Nisku areas of the city, has been burgeoning amid the addition of a 74,322 square metre (800,000 square foot) medical marijuana production facility and a 37,161 square metre (400,000 square foot) auto parts and distribution warehouse from Ford Canada.

“Cannabis is adding an additional demand segment to the overall market, for industrial or retail,” said Elton Ash, regional executive vice-president at RE/MAX of Western Canada on Wednesday.

“It’s good news from a landlord perspective.”

The Canadian Press