What Is The Hbsca? m3l4t

WHAT IS THE HSBCA?        

Who are the HBSCA? What are some of HBSCA’s Objectives? HBSCA & Empire Communities Ltd. How Does One Present Their Ideas and Concerns to the HBSCA? How is HBSCA Information Disseminated to Residents? Transparency HBS Criticisms about HBSCA’s Apparent lack of Transparency Member Corporations WHO ARE THE HBSCA?

“The Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association (HBSCA) was established in 1997. We are a volunteer-based, not-for-profit corporation representing the interests of residents in the Humber Bay Shores community. Our include the condominium corporations in the area. We currently represent 23 member corporations bordering on 2.5 km or major roadway; Park Lawn Rd and Lake Shore Blvd W - south of the Gardiner Expressway from the Humber River to Fleeceline Road to the west (to the limits of Grand Harbour Condominium). Currently about 15,000 residents live within these borders with the expectation of nearly 25,000 by the time several new, under-construction or yet-to-be developed condominium complexes are completed within the next few years. We are ive of well-planned development and revitalization initiatives and strive to cooperate with City planners, developers and others in our neighbourhood to achieve a quality commercial and living community. We have found that long after developers have met with city planners; complete their construction projects, residents are often left with an undesirable result with little recourse to affect a remedy. Further, other groups/organizations - perhaps for political reasons and not living in the immediate living area, often make presentations to influence decisions that may directly affect residents who actually do live, work, play and shop in Humber Bay Shores.” (Don Henderson, EY7.1 Request for Directions Report, June 15, 2015, http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2015/ey/comm/communicationfile-53437.pdf ) HBSCA are appointed or voted in by individual condo boards. HBSCA does not choose board . An HBSCA rep can be fired via petitioning the condo board that appointed him/her. There is an election process for 7 of the executive. Each executive member has an even year term only. The HBSCA has had significant turn over as their board is made up of volunteers who come and go. The HBSCA has a conflict of interest policy. They follow rules and bylaws governing non- profit organizations. (Don Henderson’s response in “Humber Bay Shores Discussion” FB Page, May 14, 2016)

WHAT ARE SOME OF THE HBSCA’S OBJECTIVES? According to the former president, Jim Reekie (current VP), “HBSCA has the mission to provide strong leadership for the development, preservation and beautification of a vibrant, valued, sustainable condominium community in which to live, work, and play. Some of HBSCA’s objectives are:  



Protecting, fostering, and advancing the interests of condominium owners in and around the Humber Bay Shores area, Making representations to all levels of government for the enactment, amendment, or repeal of legislation dealing with, but not limited to, all aspects of condominium ownership, real estate development, and usage of real property in the area Carrying on research and investigation into problems connected with the ownership, development, management, financing, and promotion of real property in the area.

(Letter to Chairperson Crisanti and EYCC , April 8, 2013, http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2013/ey/comm/communicationfile-35763.pdf ) THE HBSCA AND EMPIRE COMMUNITIES LTD. 2013 In 2013, the 46 and 66 storey towers designed by Empire Communities Ltd. (i.e. Eau du Soleil) didn’t comply with a number of criteria in the Official and Secondary plans, nor did it comply with the heights and setback requirements outlined in the Etobicoke Zoning Code. The HBSCA tried to negotiate some amendments with Empire Communities Ltd. in an attempt to “avoid a costly OMB (Ontario Municipal Board) battle.” West-end councillors defied city staff recommendations and voted to approve an amended proposal for the two towering condominiums. When questioned by councillors, Neil Cresswell, director of Community Planning for Etobicoke York District, said planning staff’s stated concerns with the proposal would not be alleviated by any of the amendments negotiated between Empire and the local condo association – including changing the tower heights to 63 and 49 storeys. Jim Reekie, who as president of the Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association represents 13,000+ condo dwellers in the area, said the association has been in talks with Empire to address its ’ concerns – namely the proposal’s height, park area and public parking. He urged councillors to approve the amended application in order to avoid a costly OMB battle, for which the association has received party status.

“We an approach that would achieve a negotiated settlement,” he said, highlighting some of the concessions the association had been able to negotiate with Empire. “Overall, we the design of the building, the public access to the park through a walkway and the pathways. We also the 63-storey and 49-storey building concept, and we the nearly 170 public parking spots that are going to be available to people in the community.” While Ward 6 Councillor Mark Grimes ed Reekie’s request, assuring his colleagues that outstanding wind impact issues could be resolved before the OMB meetings, neighbouring Councillor Peter Milczyn (Ward 5), a trained architect, expressed his continued misgivings. “I just think a blanket approval of the settlement today in advance of a lot of the details that this proposal seeks to establish, but has not yet established, is giving a little bit too much away, too early,” he said. “The devil is in the details, and to say you’ll settle in a couple of weeks on issues like wind impacts is, I think, overly ambitious.” Milczyn, however, was the lone voice of dissent. Grimes’ motion ed 7-1. http://www.insidetoronto.com/news-story/4228356-councillors-approve-condo-plans-on-oldbeach-motel-lands-against-city-staff-s-recommendations/ 2014 A few weeks after the October 2014 elections, the November 14th issue of Humber Happenings announced A New Community Centre for the HBS and Mimico Area:

“HBSCA President Jim Reekie had his eye on the Eau Du Soleil sales centre. Thinking it would make an ideal location, he approached the owners with the concept. The HBSCA Board voted unanimously to go forward with this initiative. With the and assistance of Councillor Mark Grimes, we have secured the site from Empire Communities. The 6000 sq ft building will be redesigned once decommissioned to serve the community of Humber Bay Shores & Mimico. It’s expected to be fully functional in three years time. Stay tuned and watch the website for further details as this project takes on making HBS a great place to live, work and play. We would like to thank everyone who helped make this happen.” https://issuu.com/collisionrepair/docs/humber_happenings_7_4_winter_2014 (p. 17) This donation never materialized. Besides the fact that the property owner—Toronto and Region Conservation Authority (TRCA)—was never informed about the donation (either by Empire who was leasing the land, or the Councillor), the City of Toronto was in the process of formalizing new Lease Agreements with Empire. These new leases were finalized in August 2015 and tie up portions of the Humber Bay Park East land until December 31, 2017. The City and Empire are currently working on a new lease agreement for the Eau du Soleil Sales Centre which could also tie up the building for another 20 months or longer. In the meantime, Empire Communities gifted the HBSCA with a free suite in the condominium at 2240 Lake Shore Boulevard West. The condominium is fairly new; it was built December 13, 2011. “HBSCA has a new head office at Legion Road and Lake Shore at Beyond the Sea, courtesy of the Empire Group, and at no cost to the hip” http://www.humberbayshores.org/organizational-structure 2015 On May 23rd, 2015, Empire Communities broke ground on Eau du Soleil Waterfront Condominiums. There was a ceremonial dig and big party around this event. HBSCA representatives were among the attendees including Don Henderson and Jim Reekie. https://issuu.com/wall2wall/docs/tcg_1215 (GTA New Condo Guide - Jun 6, 2015, pp. 96-97)

Current HBSCA VP, Jim Reekie is on far left. Current president Don Henderson is second from left.

2016 HBSCA publishes “The Need for a Community Centre for the Humber Bay Shores’ Community” in response to the proposed pavilion project in Humber Bay Park East: http://humberbayshores.org/files/files/HBS%20Community%20Centre.pdf Councillor Mark Grimes recently submitted a Request for Report on Feasibility of Re-Purposing the Sales Centre at 2183 Lake Shore Boulevard West as a City-owned Community Centre (EY 12.33, February 23, 2016). http://app.toronto.ca/tmmis/viewAgendaItemHistory.do?item=2016.EY12.33 http://www.toronto.ca/legdocs/mmis/2016/ey/bgrd/backgroundfile-90715.pdf The requested report was due at the Etobicoke-York City Council on May 10, 2016. However, it was neither on the agenda, nor brought up by any one in attendance. The HBS community are informed that the Spring 2016 edition of Humber Happenings will have the HBSCA’s position on the proposed pavilion project. This article recycles articles and

information that have been in circulation for 2 ½ months as something new. The only new editions to this article are the green borders, a picture of the HBSCA president and an announcement of a 4 question survey to be processed on their website: HH SURVEY QUESTIONS TO BE PROCESSED ON HBSCA WEBSITE (SEE HUMBERBAYSHORES.ORG): Given the prior announcement by HBSCA and Councillor Grimes in the 2014 Winter Issue of Humber Happenings and further discusses in the 2016 Spring Issue, and assuming renovation funding by the developer and the City,  

 

Are you in favour of re-purposing the Empire Presentation Centre located behind the Lake Shore/Marine Parade Esso Station to become a HBS Community Centre? Are you in favour of the HBS community operating the Centre to allow for various public functions as described in the Spring 2016 Humber Happenings Issue, including HBSCA officers? Do you feel it reasonable that operation of a Community Centre be subsidized by the City with negligible cost to the HBS Community? Do you feel that building a Pavilion/Community Centre in Humber Bay Park East next to the ponds/parking lot is unreasonable?

The concept of polling the community is great, especially if HBSCA can find a tamper-proof medium. Unfortunately, the media-monkey format they use for surveys can be manipulated. s can clear their history data and the website does not recognize that the same IP address is taking the survey. Also, anyone from around the world can take the survey. Thus, the results can never be taken as legitimate evidence reflecting the HBS community’s wishes. HOW DOES ONE PRESENT THEIR IDEAS AND CONCERNS TO THE HBSCA? The HBSCA president and vice president will only deal with building reps, not individual residents. If residents have any concerns or ideas, they are instructed to bring it to their building rep and have them bring it forward at the regular HBSCA meetings. This is the general response to any personal inquiries that do not follow this protocol. It is unclear if any of the employees of the numerous businesses in the HBS condominiums have access to the HBSCA or if it is exclusively a privilege for those living in the HBS condos. For example, employees that have issues getting to work on time due to the traffic congestion at Park Lawn and Marine Parade Drive may want to be involved in the process to do something about this situation. However, they don’t actually live in the condos and may not have a voice with the HBSCA. There are some cases where an HBSCA rep will agree to talk to a resident on the phone about an issue. These conversations are not always productive and, of course, cannot be documented in

the same way as an online conversation in a public forum. No reason has been given why the HBSCA cannot publish their stances online. No reason has been given why such discussions can only take place online. No response has been given to why the answer to one inquirer via phone would be different than the response to all inquirers. HOW IS HBSCA INFORMATION DISSEMINATED TO CONDO RESIDENTS? According to HBSCA President Don Henderson: “HBSCA' s are the condo corps not the residents. Minutes of all our meetings are distributed to condo corporations who in turn can provide their residents with information they deem worth sharing. Additionally we publish our Humber Happenings free of charge to all residents and condo corporations as well as local businesses. We also have our website (humberbayshores.org) and conduct surveys on various issues of importance to residents (e.g. traffic, unfair taxation, etc). We strive to provide services such as park clean ups, festival, farmer's market, etc). At these events we reach out to residents for their thoughts on community issues. In short, we are a group of volunteers that care deeply about our neighbourhood.” “I hope this is helpful along the lines of comments about ‘open meetings...trust and confidence in our association.’ Misinformation is what others may be about.” See Facebook page of “Humber Bay Shores Discussion,” February 19, 2016. https://www.facebook.com/search/top/?q=humber%20bay%20shores%20condominium%20asso ciation%20farmers%20market&__mref=message Based on the above information from HBSCA representatives:         

Only a condo resident can petition HBSCA about matters in the Humber Bay Shores area. A condo resident cannot personally bring forward concerns or ideas for the community to the HBSCA. A condo resident must first approach their building representative with concerns or ideas. The building rep will then (possibly) bring these things up at the next HBSCA meeting. Each of the condo reps receive the minutes from the HBSCA meetings. The condo reps can provide their residents with information they deem worth sharing. It is not clear if these condo reps can share information not found in the HBSCA meeting minutes (i.e. things discussed not found in the minutes). It is not clear if condo reps have the power or right to deny residents the right to see the minutes (i.e. if they deem it’s not worth sharing). It is not clear if condo residents have the right to access archived records of minutes, etc. These minutes are not available online on either the HBSCA website, nor the individual condominium websites of the Humber Bay Shores area.



It seems that the condo rep can decide what information is worth sharing to their residents. This leaves room for the interpretation of censorship at the discernment of the rep, and possibly the organization. TRANSPARENCY

The issue of transparency and the HBSCA is of great concern to many HBS residents, especially since this group claims to speak on behalf of the entire community and influences important decisions for them In online forums, constructive criticism or complaints about the HBSCA are sometimes met with hostility and self-justification from a HBSCA member. A cell number will be offered to discuss this situation. These conversations do not seem to be allowed via email, Facebook chat, or any form of online discussion that can be documented. If the “complainant” insists on public

discussion or email exchange, then the tone of the conversation has been known to become more abusive, aggressive and hostile. In this spirit of hostility, the member demands to know the “complainant’s” condo rep, which in essence is demanding, “I want to know where you live!” in the past, this has been coupled with attempts of public shaming and insults toward the “complainant” along with straw man arguments. The screenshot above is from a conversation about publicly releasing HBSCA minutes on a Humber Bay Shores Discussion Page. The first statement is misleading. Don did not state how he’d give his cell phone# to the individual (i.e. publicly online, in a personal message, etc.)

Don states he could not reach this individual any other way (other than phone or knowing their condo rep, i.e. the address of said individual). Emails or discussing an issue that affects many community on a public forum does not seem to be an option. In the past, Don has not replied to questions via emails or Facebook messages from this individual. Don’s statement that by posting the HBSCA minutes on FB, “you share each of our names and condo corporation where each of our reps resides,” is also misleading. The Humber Bay Shores website posts a pdf issue of Humber Bay Happenings which also contains the said information as the screen shot below illustrates: http://humberbayshores.org/magazine

Don goes on to state, “So you continue to onish volunteer-based HBSCA for lack of transparency yet as stated again you do not list your name, will not let me know how to reach a condo board to facilitate transparency, cite our budget-sensitive survey flaws when attempting resident in Humber Happenings, etc.” The principle of the matter is, an individual does not have to be transparent on a public forum. As an individual not representing any organization or public group, he/she has the right to their privacy (and this would also apply in phone calls, emails, etc., with HBSCA representatives). However, a non-profit volunteer group stated to be the unified voice of a community is required to be transparent according to various non-profit regulations and by-laws in Ontario. The aggressiveness and obsessive persistence of every comment to extract an individual’s address is a tactic that cannot be ignored. The bully-board tactics sometimes witnessed online by high-ranking reps of the HBSCA does not help their image and reputation in the HBS community. HBS CRITICISMS ABOUT HBSCA’S APPARENT LACK OF TRANSPARENCY In marketing, it is well-known that very few dissatisfied customers complain, making this a meaningless measure of customer satisfaction. Though very few customers will complain directly to you, this does not mean that they won’t complain to other people. In fact in reality it’s quite the opposite! A research study conducted by TARP research back in 1999 discovered that on average an unhappy customer will tell 10 people about their experience. In turn, these 10 people will each tell a further 5 people, meaning that a total of 50 people will have heard about their bad experience. A sobering thought, wouldn’t you say? http://jackiehuba.com/media/docs/2010/06/basicfacts.pdf If we work on the basis that only one out of every ten of your dissatisfied customers s a complaint with you, then in total, for every formal complaint you receive, 500 people will have heard about your customers’ problems! “Customers very rarely complain to the service/ product provider. Instead they will tell their friends, who will in turn tell their friends, creating a pyramid of dissatisfaction.” Ultimately, if you conduct a customer satisfaction survey it will not only give you a benchmark of where you are today, but if you ask the right questions in the first place, it will also enable you to highlight your priorities for improvement so that you know you are putting your energies into those areas that are of the highest importance to your customers. Ultimately, you can’t manage what you don’t measure. The following statements are quotes from the Humber Bay Shores Discussion Page found on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/groups/HumberBayShores/

FV: The HBSCA should stop pretending they speak for our community (because they won't share their discussions with the public, hence have no business representing anyone) - and Mark Grimes stop listening to them as if they represent us. They don't! We can't even get information from them directly, but go through our condo boards. What kind of bureaucratic democracy is this? USSR? RS: that time that they had the new plans for the Marine Parade "park" but wouldn't send it to me unless I went to their office..... ya.... very transparent! RB: They often make me reconsider my position against that Council recommendation considering NFPs as lobbyist... It is also amazing that the HBSCA is so adverse to making minutes public and improving transparency re: their activities while they are so willing to ask the community and the City for OUR parkland to house their operations. GB: I came to the conclusion long ago that the HBSCA does not represent me. I have also concluded that they are not a transparent operation. This most recent self-serving act is pretty low. RC: There have been no minutes available to Palace Place residents for HBSCA except one last year after I asked they be posted. Our rep for HBSCA has not made any minutes for HBSCA available since then and I am tired of asking. RB: I have tried on multiple occasions to discuss important community issues within this area with top level of the HBSCA. Each time I have faced dismissive language and attitudes bordering on the offensive. Transparency does not improve just because we have someone's information.

May 14th, 2016: HBSCA President, Don Henderson’s response to above criticism about transparency.

MEMBER CORPORATIONS Each of the following condominiums has a representative member in the HBSCA. The representatives of each member corporation meet on a regular basis, usually monthly, to discuss current issues affecting the Humber Bay Shores community, and to plan and organize the various events. HBSCA has four main committees: 1. Building Community deals with the beautification and maintenance of the landscapes in the community in cooperation with the various city and provincial departments and organizations. 2. Communications and Outreach, to keep the member corporations connected to each other and the wider community. 3. Traffic and Transportation considers the various traffic and infrastructure problems faced by the community. 4. Planning and Development, working with the city planning department and developers to exercise some influence over the developments that are still to be built, based on what we have learned from issues that have been associated with existing buildings. Bal Harbour: 12 Yachters Lane, Etobicoke ON M8V Explorer: 58 Marine Parade Drive, Etobicoke ON M8V Grand Harbour A-B-C: 2287 Lakeshore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Grenadier Landing: 5 Marine Parade Drive, Etobicoke ON M8V Hearthstone: 3 Marine Parade Drive, Etobicoke ON M8V Marina del Rey Phase I: 2261 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Marina del Rey Phase II: 2267 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Marina del Rey Phase III: 2269 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Nautilus: 16 Brookers Lane, Etobicoke ON M8V Newport Beach: 2111 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke, ON M8V Palace Pier: 2045 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Palace Place: 1 Palace Pier Court, Etobicoke ON M8V Lakeside Place: 2067 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Voyager Phase I: 2119 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Voyager Phase II: 2121 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Waterford: 2095 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V South Beach Green Tower: 90 Park Lawn Road, Etobicoke ON M8Y South Beach Blue Tower: 88 Park Lawn Road, Etobicoke ON M8Y Beyond the Sea Phase I: 15 Legion Road, Etobicoke ON M8V Beyond the Sea Phase III: 2230 Lake Shore Blvd. West, Etobicoke ON M8V Waterscapes: 80 Marine Parade Drive, Etobicoke ON M8V To the Humber Bay Shores Condominium Association please email: [email protected]

2013 Site plan of Humber Bay Shores, base map copyright City of Toronto, overlay by Craig White