Technical Corner

November 7, 2024

Introduction

Recreation facilities are designed and constructed to specific provincial/territorial legislative requirements that must be maintained by the owner or their designate. These legislative obligations are governed differently in each province/ territory making the development of one guideline to assist all recreation professionals difficult and impractical. However, there are some common elements that can be used to better understand compliance requirements while offering a safe play and work environment.

The monitoring of all applicable legislative obligations is difficult and time consuming. Therefore, it is often the responsibility of local government to play that role in each province or territory, or alternatively, it may fall on professional not-for-profit associations (like ORFA) to play that role on behalf of their members.  With the caveat that associations are incorporated to serve a specific sector and with open membership. Membership is a gateway to dedicated resources that often include guidelines and industry best practices that in the absence of legislation, become a go to by the legal system in addition to regulations, directives, codes, and policy.

Provincial and territorial recreation leaders are also nationally connected via the Canadian Recreation Facilities Network (previously Council) allowing them to tap into what is happening in other areas to confirm their region is being reasonable in their compliance objectives. However, it is important to comprehend that all provincial and territorial recreation organizations have no authority to direct any member on how they must operate. Compliance and safe operations are strictly an internal responsibility. This requires well-trained facility staff who are committed to ongoing professional development.

It is also important to understand that membership fees and other revenue producing initiatives that generates a profit for not-for-profit associations is not a red flag or should be viewed as contrary to operational best practices.  Provincial/territorial association finances are held in-trust by these organizations and will be reinvested back into the organization when appropriate to improve the industry via products and services. Private businesses that offer similar services do not have the same commitment and will personally benefit from profits without any guarantee that these funds will be reinvested.

The following is offered in general terms to assist recreation facility owners and practitioners on understanding the legislative compliance pathway.

1. Acts provide direction and at times the necessary power to governing authorities to oversee compliance.
2. Regulations are obligated compliance obligations that must be met without exception. Interpretation is left with the stakeholders identified in these regulations. Stakeholders are often identified as the “owner”, “operator”, “user”, “worker”, “supervisor”, etc. Acts and Regulations are often difficult to update as there are many layers of public and stakeholder consultation and review that must occur to meet government process.
3. Codes are documents that are for the real-time application of regulations. They can be changed through due process that is much less challenging than changing an act or regulation. Codes are immediately adopted into new construction or retrofits. Updated Codes are not mandatory to existing operations unless directed by the most appropriate governing authority to comply or should major retrofit occur that then requires update of other Codes.
4. All recreation facilities are constructed to the Building Code of the year of design and construction. The Building Code is a warehouse of all current requirements associated with safe design and construction principles. This warehousing of information allows for one point of current and up to date information access to those tasked with facility design and construction. Once a facility is commissioned, the Building Code no longer applies however, each Code becomes an individual operational and managerial responsibility to ongoing compliance.
5. Standards are documents that focus on specific subject matter and usually only apply to new construction or a retrofit. Appropriate governing authorities can reference or force compliance to Standards through a directive or during an inspection.
6. Alerts and/or Advisory’s are directives provided from a specific governing authority to address specific situations or events that have occurred that may have created a level of risk. These are to be considered by all stakeholders in respect to their operations policy and procedures and adopted if deemed reasonable to improve safe operations.
7. Best practices and guidelines are crafted from frontline experiences to assists others in the same business or service delivery. They should be reviewed to evaluate internal operational activities to ensure they are meeting similar approaches to the same matter.

Once a facility is commissioned for use it becomes facility managements responsibility to maintain the operation to the original design and standards. A facility managers responsibility is to continually measure existing design and construction materials and methods against current regulatory requirements and consider if updating the operation is a reasonable act of diligence. It is understood that such recommendations may not be adopted by senior administrative staff however, it is facility managements responsibility to inform of gaps in current operations so that well-informed decisions might be made.

Not-for-profit provincial and territorial recreational organizations act as watch dogs to legislative change and challenges that may shape the future of the industry. Their responsibility is to share information to keep members well-informed on relevant matters. Each province/territory will then respond by creating various professional development opportunities to ensure that their members remain current and up to date. Membership fees are an important part of this process. Each member is a stakeholder in the future of the industry.