March 2005

The MCA Ontario 2005 Annual Meeting / Conference – to be held between May 17th and May 29th, 2005 – is Sold Out! This year’s Conference will take place aboard Royal Caribbean’s “flagship” luxury liner, Serenade of the Seas, cruising among the Hawaiian Islands and then back to the Port of Vancouver, for the flight(s) back to Toronto.

We look forward to another memorable Conference. Once again, the Conference Agenda includes many informative sessions on topics affecting our industry, and the usual opportunities for memorable interaction with industry associates.

The second phase of this legislation takes effect on July 1, 2005. Included among the provisions coming into effect as of that date are the following:

Mandatory Qualifications for building officials
Standard Qualifications Testing for building systems designers
Mandatory qualifications and professional indemnity insurance for "Registered Code Agencies" (RCA’s)
Implementation / use of a standard building permit application
Expedited time frames for processing building permits (e.g. 10 days)
Specified stages of construction when a building must be inspected
MCAO has made written submissions to the Ministry of Housing and Municipal Affairs on matters concerning the mechanical industry (e.g. C of Q status; Qualifications tests); and one of our members, Joe Rogers, of Rogers & Associates Ltd. (Toronto) has been our representative on the tri-partite Committee established by the Ontario Plumbing Inspectors Association of Ontario (“OPIA”).

Please contact Don Del Vecchio at 905-856-0342 if you would like to contribute to MCAO’s initiatives on this matter, or if you have any questions in this regard. Meanwhile, we will continue to monitor this issue and report on any developments.