Mr. Roger Barsy, Director of the Residential Tenancies Branch was the guest speaker.
A packed room of almost 40 PPMA members attended the September Education Session. Mr. Roger Barsy is the Director of the Residential Tenancies Branch (RTB) and personally attended to update attendees on Bill 38, and also talk about the changes that are taking place at the branch.
Mr. Barsy opened the session by personally thanking the PPMA for their well wishes during his recent illness. He also advised that the channels of communication between the branch and our Association are working well. The Executive of the PPMA has met and will continue to meet with Mr. Barsy and his staff to talk about the recent changes to the legislation and to give input on the regulations that are being drafted to support those changes.
Mr. Barsy reviewed a summary sheet of the changes to the act and answered questions on each of the items. He advised the group that there are some areas that are not yet proclaimed and these were identified in the handout by shaded areas. (If you are interested in receiving a copy of the handout, contact the PPMA office) Lots of good questions and discussion took place as he reviewed each change. He encouraged members to use the web site to keep updated on changes. Their website is www.residentialtenancies.mb.ca
After lunch, Mr. Barsy continued to review Bill 38 and then spoke of the changes that are going on at the branch. KPMG did a study in 1999 to look at the business practices at the RTB. From this, many items were identified and although Mr. Barsy identified that those using the branch aren't seeing vast improvements, he said that in time things will improve. The branch is working towards more front end service so that issues can be resolved quickly and not get bogged down opening a file and having the file being passed from person to person. This will be achieved with increased staffing, improved forms and an electronic platform. The electronic platform will create a “virtual file” that anyone at the branch can deal with.
Major restructuring of the branch is a huge undertaking and Mr. Barsy asked for us to be patient as the different stages get implemented. There will be time to work out the creases before the next stage is started.
Unfortunately, we were to review the changes to the Life Lease Legislation, but we ran out of time. Any participants that are interested to meet for approximately one hour sometime in the next few weeks, should contact Shirley at the PPMA office or contact Laurie Socha at lsocha@sam.mb.ca. We will attempt to get Roger for an hour to review these changes.
The session was well attended, was professionally done and feedback was positive.
On behalf of the Board of Directors of the PPMA we would like to “Thank” Roger Barsy for taking the time to conduct the session for our members.
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