Toronto hydronics firm says their recent fines from Ontario College of Trades are unfair and punitive to small businesses

A family-owned contracting firm that specializes in boiler installations and hydronic heating in the Toronto area says it has been fined twice by the Ontario College of Trades (OCOT) for installing an air handler that, the firm argues, involved work that has no safety or other reason to require the attentions of a Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Mechanic.

One of the firm’s partners contacted Canadian Contractor last week, shortly after her firm received two Notices of Contravention from OCOT, one for $500 and one for $250. The fines were for work that the firm did last fall installing a Space Pak unit, a high velocity air conditioning system commonly used in homes without sheet metal unfaductwork. The contractor said an OCOT enforcement officer began an investigation on her firm last fall and demanded the names and addresses of all the subtrades who had worked on the project, including their payroll details and other information. The firm asked for more detail from OCOT as to the nature of any complaint, but OCOT refused to provide any other information, the contractor says.

“The product we installed, which is well-known in the hydronics industry, is called a Space Pak,” the contractor said. “It is all pre-engineered tubing. Yet they were trying to nail us on the ductwork. We told them, we didn’t do any ductwork. A Space Pak doesn’t require any ductwork to install it. The enforcement officer didn’t even know what Space Pak was. If they did know what it was, they wouldn’t have issued us this ticket. It was quite clear to us that she didn’t have the construction knowledge to decide that there was a violation of their regulations here. Which there clearly was not.”

The firm contacted its lawyers when OCOT began to individually question all of the subtrades who had worked on the project. “Our lawyer told them that we needed to receive details about any complaint against us in order to respond. Again they refused to provide any details and, after that, we didn’t hear from them for months. Then they walked in last week – two individuals from OCOT – and give us a Notice of Contravention for $500. A few days after that, we got another ticket in the mail for $250.”

The OCOT tickets say that the firm “employed or engaged individuals within the Scope of Practice of Refrigeration and Air Conditioning System Mechanics as per Ontario Regulation 275.1, section 34.” The firm has 30 days to pay the fines. If they disagree with the charges, they have only one avenue of appeal, to the Ontario Labour Relations Board, within 15 days.

Contacted by Canadian Contractor, the Ontario College of Trades, through its media relations office Tracey Shepherd, said that the College would not comment on this particular case, citing confidentiality provisions of the legislation that brought OCOT into existence. But Shepherd did add: “We disagree with any claim that suggests an NOC (Notice of Contravention) was issued to any individual or business that was not engaging in a trade that requires a valid C of Q.

The contractor clearly disagrees.

“We told OCOT clearly that none of us at our firm are OCOT members because we do not fall under their jurisdiction. Yet, even though we did not need OCOT qualifications to do this work, we had a sub trade on the site who is a section 313 qualified AC installer.”

“All we are trying to do is run a family business, provide good products and good service to our customers, and we are in every way a legit, above-board, tax-paying and legal hydronics firm – with gas licences, TSSA affiliation and everything else required.”

“We brought up a number of concerns, all of which were steadfastly ignored by the enforcement officer. It was clear to us that the College was not acting in the interests of public safety in this matter, but was simply trying to justify imposing a fine on a small business.”