Hard & Now Obvious Truth: Everything is More Expensive and Everything Takes Longer

We write to relay a fairly straight forward message.  We won’t restate or rehash what you are all likely reading about in newspapers and seeing on the 6 o’clock news about the World, Canadian and British Columbian economies- you can find far better sources than our firm for this information.  Briefly, the world is a very different place than it was pre-COVID and our economy has changed, and continues to, in a dramatic fashion. 

Inflation is at highs not seen in decades, and the labour force has shrunk significantly- particularly in the service sectors, which you all employ (think of your concierges, window cleaners, janitorial staff and more).  There are new costs borne by employers (such as increased minimum wage/living wage and paid sick time – something we have always provided to our staff) that are translating into increased costs to clients for services. Our own firm is not immune to any of these challenges, as our own costs have soared for wages, insurance, supplies… well, everything.

Supply chain disruptions have resulted in shortages of everything from glass to garage door operators to enterphone screens.  Restoration companies report that during the December/January cold snap, there simply weren’t enough dryers and dehumidifiers in the Lower Mainland to effect emergency services in a timely manner and some of that restoration work will take months to start even once authorization is provided.  While these shortages and their impacts are being felt in all areas of the economy, our industry has had a critical shortage of licensees for many years and the situation is now absolutely dire with not nearly enough professionals available to assist consumers with managing the every growing number of strata corporations in BC.  We have recently had to terminate clients due to a simple lack of capacity and literally say no to new business every single day, both worrisome signs that are very illustrative of the current predicament and supply-demand crunch being felt.

So our message is simple- expect almost all of the costs related to the maintenance and administration of your Strata Corporation to go up, and expect services to take longer than you are used to.  Every supplier, contractor and vendor we are dealing with is struggling in some new way.  The economy is being reshaped and we don’t know what the impact will be in the long term, but we are seeing significant shortages of supplies and labour in the meantime and are here to counsel patience and understanding.

Thank you as always for your business and your continued support.

Addendum, March 14, 2022 – Almost as though they read our blog post, the Province today announced that with BC officially tying minimum wage to inflation, the new minimum wage in BC will be $15.65 as of June 1, 2022 – an increase of $0.45.