News from Ontario, Toronto and CECA

KJA Advising on VT to Serve Proposed Ontario Line

KJA Consultants, Inc. Chief Operating Officer Rob Isabelle tells ELEVATOR WORLD the consultancy is helping plan the vertical-transportation (VT) system for the proposed 15.5-km-long Ontario Line, which will include more than 300 elevators and escalators. The CAD10.9-billion (US$8.4-billion) rapid-transit project of the Government of Ontario is slated for completion by 2027. It is expected to include up to 15 stations between Ontario Place and Ontario Science Centre, and potential links to GO Transit and Toronto Transit Commission Lines 1 and 2. Public transit agency Metrolinx says the line will implement a mix of surface track, elevated guideways and underground tunnels, which promises to reduce construction timelines, provide safer and more convenient transfers and serve “transit-deprived” communities sooner than previously anticipated.

Triangular Tower for Triangular Lot in Toronto

Capital Developments wants to bring a 30-story, mixed-use triangular tower designed by Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc. to a triangular lot at 717 Church Street in the Bloor-Yorkville neighborhood of Toronto, Urban Toronto reported in December 2020. Occupied by a parking lot, a three-story multiunit building and an office building, the lot is bound by Church and Collier streets and Park Road. On the drawing board are 300 condominium units, privately owned public space, public art and ground-level retail. Bronze fins would run up to the 15th floor. To be sustainable, private car-parking space is excluded, but a trio of carsharing stalls is planned.

CECA: Residential Elevator Standard, Scholarships

In late 2020, the Canadian Elevator Contractors Association (CECA) launched a private-residence elevator program aimed at self-regulating. Without an AHJ to enforce code requirements for private-residence elevators, CECA’s Private Residence Division wrote a standard that includes requirements for contractors, mechanics and homeowners. It covers the application and adoption of safety codes, installation, permitting, acceptance tests and continuing education for elevator mechanics. Apart from ensuring contractors’ submissions are complete, CECA acts only as a storage facility. Full details can be found at the standalone CECA Private Residence website, cecaprdregistry.com. The website also includes a homeowner training course and quiz, which can be tied to the registered elevator (if available). Permits for CECA members are discounted to CAD35 (US$27) from CAD70 (US$55).

CECA’s 2020 CAD2,500 (US$1,951) scholarship winners are, in Elevator Studies, Johnathan Nolet, an employee of Venture Elevator in Edmonton, and Trenton Tebbutt, son of Tim Tebbutt, a KONE elevator mechanic. Nolet wants to gain education that will help him become a licensed elevator mechanic. Tebbutt is continuing his electrician studies at Sprott Shaw College School of Trades in Burnaby, with the goal of following in his father’s footsteps and becoming an elevator mechanic. In general studies, scholarship winners are Hannah Kapur, daughter of Vinay Kapur of KONE, and Rebecca Chadney, daughter of Michael Chadney of APEX Elevator Consulting + Engineering of Burnaby.