Electronic
Annual General Meetings & Special General Meetings of Condominium
Corporations can now be held “electronically”
As a result of Covid-19 and the many health orders
limiting face to face interaction, it became imprudent for condominium Boards
of Directors and owners of condominium to hold in person Annual General
Meetings & Special General Meetings.
This dilemma has now been solved by Bill 53 - SERVICE ALBERTA STATUTES
(VIRTUAL MEETINGS) AMENDMENT ACT, 2021.
So long as a condominium corporation’s bylaws do not
expressly prohibit electronic meetings, this amending act provides that Condominium
Corporations (as well as Residents Associations, Home Owner’s Associations,
Corporations, Societies and Cooperatives) may now hold meetings electronically.
Subsection
1(1) of the Condominium Property Act RSA 2000 c-22 has been amended
to read after clause (j.1):
(j.2) “electronic
means” in respect of attending or holding a meeting, means a method of
electronic or telephonic communication that enables all persons attending the
meeting to hear and communicate with each other instantaneously, including,
without limitation, teleconferencing and computer network-based or
internet-based communications platforms;
and Section 31 has been amended to read
as follows:
Meetings
of Board or Corporation
Manner
and venue
31(1)
Unless a corporations’ bylaws expressly provide otherwise,
(a) A
person entitled to attend a meeting of the corporation or of its board of
directors may attend the meeting by electronic means,
(b) A
meeting of the corporation or its board of directors may be held entirely by
electronic means,
(c) A
person attending a meeting by electronic means under clause (a) or (b) who is
entitled to vote at the meeting may vote by any electronic, telephonic or other
method that the corporation has made available for that purpose, and
(d) A
person attending a meeting by electronic means under clause (a) or (b) is
deemed for the purposes under this Act to be present in person at that meeting.
(2)
Meetings that are not held entirely by electronic means must be held at a
location within the municipality in which the units are located unless an
ordinary resolution to hold the meetings in another location is passed at a
general meeting of the corporation.
Condominium Corporations should no longer
hold off giving notice of their Annual General Meetings and proceed to hold
them electronically if necessary.
