Author

Bailey Amber

As a chief data officer, healthcare CEO, or other executive in the industry, you know how vital data governance is across all departments and within your organization’s supply chains. The well-being of your patients and company depend on it. By adhering to comprehensive yet practicable data governance policies, your organization can reduce risks associated with inappropriate handling and use of critical information while simultaneously optimizing operational performance. Grounding strategies for implementing effective data governance in the healthcare sector is critical.

What is data governance and why it matters

Data governance is a process for managing data assets in an organization, with the primary goal of ensuring data interoperability and data quality. Healthcare data governance is especially essential as it allows organizations to ensure that data is secure and also accessible in communities where data sharing and data privacy are of major importance. Health Level 7 (HL7) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) are two standards used within data governance strategies to enable better data management, and consequently, a better patient experience. With the help of data governance, disparities can be addressed in healthcare organizations, allowing for greater equity when it comes to patient care in healthcare delivery settings. Therefore, data governance should be seen as an important feature of any successful organization that strives to leverage technology to provide comprehensive healthcare experiences.

As per MIT’ s survey, Chief Data Officers priorities were as follows:

  • Establishing clear and effective data governance (51%)
  • Improving data quality (48%)
  • Building and maintaining advanced analytics capabilities (42%)
  • Building and maintaining business intelligence capabilities (36%)
  • Data monetization capabilities (21%)
  • Data, analytics, and AI ethics (21%)

Data governance also ranked highest when chief data officers were asked to rank their top three priorities, with 45% citing clear and effective data governance as a top concern.

Key challenges in the healthcare industry when implementing data governance

The healthcare industry is complex, and implementing data governance can present certain challenges when it comes to collaboration between various stakeholders. Data silos, legacy systems , and data inconsistencies can all present obstacles to effective data governance. Additionally, the implementation of new technologies must be accompanied by policies to ensure their compliance with regulatory requirements. Finally, data privacy and  security are also major concerns in the healthcare industry and must be addressed when implementing data governance strategies.

Consideration

A solid data governance program is essential to ensure the proper management of valuable healthcare data and the associated risks, such as data privacy, quality control and security. Implementing effective data governance requires a comprehensive plan that involves various strategies throughout the entire value chain. Some strategies include conducting internal policy reviews, forming governing bodies responsible for developing and implementing standards, policies and procedures that apply to teams across organizations, leveraging technology to provide insights into usage trends, developing communication plans with stakeholders regarding policies and processes, ensuring transparency in leadership roles related to this governance program, monitoring compliance activities and encouraging user feedback through surveys and focus group interviews. These steps are necessary for successful implementation of a data governance program in the healthcare sector.

How to ensure proper data governance

Proper data governance is essential to ensure the efficient and accurate operation of an organization. It involves creating static rules, dynamic management processes and a comprehensive set of business objectives which must be met to protect the integrity of data within the system. Best practices can include investing in high-quality security tools, educating personnel about applicable regulations and legal requirements related to data management and setting up internal procedures for compliance monitoring. Additionally, incorporating artificial intelligence into existing data platforms could help with predictive analytics that can create even more secure solutions moving forward. Taking these steps can help organizations set up a robust process for data governance which will allow them to remain compliant while maximizing their operational efficiency.

Conclusion 

To summarize, data governance is an essential tool for healthcare organizations to ensure trust, transparency and compliance within their data systems. There are several key challenges that organizations face when trying to implement proper guidelines including the need for effective communication and change management strategies. Artificial Intelligence can enable healthcare organizations to make better use of their data and optimize the process of data governance.

Ultimately, a successful adoption of data governance in healthcare requires both good planning and execution as well as robust monitoring mechanisms. With the promised benefits of improved patient outcomes, reduced costs, better personnel organization and more efficient operations, now is the time for healthcare systems everywhere to embrace the practice of implementing an effective data governance program.

Photo: Galeanu Mihai, Getty Images

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Record arrival of new immigrants has further fuelled demand for rental housing

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The record arrival of more than one million new immigrants and non-permanent residents (mostly international students) last year has further fuelled the demand for rental housing while the growth in rental supply has been deficient.

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Large rent increases have been reported in large and small towns across the country, and that affects low-income households more. College and university students constitute a large segment of the low-income population, so they are facing increasing hardship because of insufficient affordable rental accommodation on or near campus. Furthermore, most international students come from countries with lower incomes than Canada, making them even more susceptible to rapidly escalating rents.

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Rental housing shortage is a big concern for students in large housing markets such as Toronto and Vancouver, but shortages can be an even bigger problem in small university towns. The housing stock in less populous towns simply does not provide enough safe and affordable off-campus housing opportunities within a short commute. Students, therefore, must compete for space with higher-earning would-be renters.

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Already, on- and off-campus housing shortages are restricting the growth of universities and colleges. In Sydney, N.S., Cape Breton University had to cap admissions to its two-year post-baccalaureate program because of a lack of housing opportunities in a town that is home to fewer than 20,000 residents. The program was hugely popular with international students, but the housing shortages got in the way.

Until recently, the United States was the destination of choice for hundreds of thousands of international students. But policy changes under former president Donald Trump made the U.S. less welcoming to international students, who shifted their attention to Canada, among other places, as a result.

Those international students who choose to stay will help address the impending labour shortages in Canada since the pandemic motivated many workers to retire sooner. But that’s a double-edged sword. On one hand, tens of thousands of international students are needed to help sustain innovation in engineering and other labs. On the other hand, they are exacerbating the rental housing shortage.

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“International students get hit particularly hard as they are ineligible to collect the $500 top-up to the Canadian Housing Benefit, which is designed to help households facing surging rents,” Mike Moffatt, founding director of Smart Prosperity Institute, said in a recent assessment of the 2023 federal budget.

Student housing shortages have already attracted the real estate industry’s attention. A trade conference by the Student Housing and University Real Estate Initiative (SHURE) will be held later in April at the University of British Columbia that will bring together representatives from universities, colleges, real estate management firms, investors, institutional landlords and others.

Numerous new student housing initiatives are in the works in British Columbia. For example, Vancouver Community College is building 3,300 apartments to provide affordable housing alternatives for students.

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The initiative benefits from a 2018 promise by the B.C. government to invest $450 million in 5,000 additional student housing spaces. A crucial part of the B.C. government plan was to enable colleges and universities to take on debt for new student housing initiatives. Before 2018, such institutions (except UBC) were not authorized to do so.

In Hamilton, McMaster University plans to construct a 30-storey academic hub downtown, which will include 600 graduate student housing spaces. The $100-million hub will be accompanied by another $150-million project offering 1,366 beds for undergraduates. In addition, the mixed-use buildings will house supporting facilities, such as fitness centres, to help meet students’ shelter and related needs.

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  1. A home for sale in Mississauga, Ont.

    Canada’s housing market is not as grim as some forecasters suggest

  2. Apartments for rent in Ottawa.

    Canada’s rental housing market lags US, causing a lot of problems

  3. Condo buildings in Liberty Village neighbourhood in Toronto.

    Housing needs mean more condos, benefiting renters and investors alike

Universities across Canada offer an extensive portfolio of student housing spaces and services. For example, McMaster provides 4,000 student beds spread across 13 residences, and UBC houses 13,000 students in Vancouver and 2,120 students at its Okanagan campus.

Providing additional student housing should be a priority to attract the best talent from across the globe to Canadian universities. Provinces such as B.C. have taken steps to expand student housing facilities, but much more is needed, especially from the federal government, which regulates the flow of international students, but does not do much to assist with student housing.

Murtaza Haider is a professor of real estate management and director of the Urban Analytics Institute at Toronto Metropolitan University. Stephen Moranis is a real estate industry veteran. They can be reached at the Haider-Moranis Bulletin website, www.hmbulletin.com.

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Over the years, we’ve used technology to secure technology, and for the most part, it’s been done to great effect. 

However, we’ve not been so good at using tech to secure people. Given that humans are the primary attack vector, there’s a need to solve “the people problem,” and that starts with breathing life into an organisation’s cybersecurity culture. 

According to the OAIC’s latest Notifiable Data Breaches report, human error accounted for 25 per cent of data breaches between July to December 2022. This shows there’s a need for organisations to focus on developing a culture of security best practices. 

The stronger a security culture is, the more likely it is that people will behave securely and exhibit secure behaviours. To build a resilient cybersecurity workplace culture, groundwork must be laid, and an attitude that enforces secure behaviour must be instilled in the workplace. 

The culture cultivated in the work environment influences the perceptions, beliefs, and values of the people co-existing in it. We can drive a positive cybersecurity culture by educating ourselves and prioritising workplace values such as positivity and collaboration. An overtly authoritative security team who use “a stick” instead of “a carrot” drive the cybersecurity culture of a workplace underground, with staff less likely to identify cybersecurity risks and more likely to see the cybersecurity team as unapproachable. 

Instead, if the security team encourage people to participate and ask questions to better understand cybersecurity best practices, a more desired outcome can be achieved. Getting cybersecurity right is essential and leaves little room for error or mistakes, as a threat actor only needs one error to be made by staff to gain access to an organisation.  

What can organisations do to drive a positive cybersecurity culture, without falling down along the way? 

  1. Collaboration is key

Self-awareness plays a leading role in this endeavour, and security teams must be able to hold a mirror in front of themselves and ask, “would I buy into what I see here?” It’s a measure that requires an understanding of what people think about the security team. By asking the workforce about their thoughts on the cybersecurity team, you can gain an honest cyberculture health check and an understanding of what needs significant improvement. 

These key performance questions can help indicate the organisation’s cyberculture level.  

  • Do people feel safe reporting incidents? Even ones they might have been responsible for?   
  • Does the security team receive regular communication from the workforce, such as requests for briefings?
  • Do staff understand the priorities of the security team? Do they trust the security team to keep them, and the information they are working on, secure?
  • Is the message getting through? If not, why? Is it too technical, too vague, or too unfamiliar? 

When trying to steer the security course of an organisation, remember that emotions are vital. It’s very important to facilitate a frank discourse where employees can freely share their thoughts and feelings about everything from the security team to policies and training opportunities.  

  1. Keep things simple

Motivating the workforce to be cyber-secure and ensuring security, are two simple goals that facilitate success. Understanding people and using simple, non-technical language, you can inspire people to do what you want without feeling like you’re burdening them. It is much easier to advise people on positive actions that can assist them in being cyber-secure than providing a list of 20 things they should not do.  

  1. Get creative with your message delivery

Success lies in communicating cybersecurity instructions concisely and simply. Why not make it easy and tell people how much time they’ll save with a new password manager solution that can be installed using a few clear instructions? By being creative and joining forces with your HR or internal communications team, you can brainstorm engaging ways to help communicate your vision using non-technical language. Whilst writing instructions is the most effective way to communicate instructions to the broader organisation, you can make it more of an enjoyable experience for the readers. Placing instructions in a creative medium such as a comic book or on a poster is much more engaging and exciting. 

The best managers will tell you that trying to rule with fear is never recommended; the same thought applies to building a cybersecurity culture. Collaborating with employees and speaking to them in simple terms, rather than cyber jargon that will just confuse them is essential. Cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility, so make sure your entire business feels empowered to contribute meaningfully. 

Keep up to date with our stories on LinkedInTwitterFacebook and Instagram.

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These are challenging times for health care, and particularly for women in health care. Consider that nearly 78% of the health care workforce is represented by women.

When I look at the pressing challenges affecting health care today from inflation, shrinking margins, staffing shortages, turnover, and supply chain disruptions, I think about how these issues may be disproportionately affecting women. It can happen in a trickle-down effect and spur a vicious cycle where understaffing may lead to poor patient experiences, discouraging future visits and further suppressing health system revenue. This scenario can fuel overwork and burnout for women whose hands touch all aspects of care delivery. This cycle – often exacerbated by the challenges of our times – can take a toll on our female workforce and their own health and well-being.

Inflation adds to the burden in an insidious way as well. Rising costs can mean that more patients may put off screenings, prevention, and early treatment. Thus, they may show up to emergency rooms and doctor’s offices sicker, possibly with more advanced stage diseases.  This situation can be more costly for the patient’s health and wallet but can also be costly to our female workforce resulting in fewer hands to care for more acute patients.

Not surprisingly, stressed, short-staffed environments can jeopardize patient outcomes.

We need to invest

These circumstances explain why a vast majority (85%) of health system leaders recently said in a Deloitte survey that staffing challenges would have a “major impact” on their 2023 strategies. More than nine in 10 surveyed said investing in their workforce was “important or “very important.”

Although these intentions are encouraging, well-meaning executives will likely be forced to balance workforce investment with the need to maintain profitability. This month, as we recognize International Women’s Day and Women’s History Month, let’s commit that every dollar that’s invested in the strained, largely female health care workforce pays off.

Can we do it? 

I believe we can, and there’s no better time than now. The right approach can improve workforce performance and satisfaction for women throughout an organization. I recommend new initiatives from the top that show support for women, starting with an all-important listening initiative to help ensure that women (and others) feel heard and that eventual solutions are on target with their needs.

Here’s how

Specifically, I recommend the 3Rs: retain, reengage, and reimagine. One main principle of the 3Rs is to carefully blend quick wins with longer-term transformation.

  • Retain – Focus on improving working conditions right out of the gate. This could start with identifying problems that are high on priority lists, relatively easy to solve, and address them right away. Brush up on effective leadership behaviors and communicate transparently. Examples of quick wins could be new support for childcare, flexible scheduling, job sharing, mentorship arrangements, and remote work options. Also look for ways to show appreciation through nonmonetary rewards like gratitude days, celebrations, and wellness resources. Other quick retention measures could be more direct, such as retention bonuses or launching a new mental health service to help provide additional support during difficult times. Small wins can help build momentum and demonstrate your commitment to women in your organization.
  • Reengage – Strive to help women feel empowered. Encouraging women to identify root causes of stress and dissatisfaction, and to propose ideas for a better workplace experience is important. Here is where you can clarify and formalize efforts to reflect their specific needs from career paths to professional development to growth opportunities. Another reengagement measure could be reassessing your total rewards program and adjusting the mix of benefits, pay, and other rewards. This can also be where you can transform the culture by fostering greater inclusion, addressing safety (psychological and physical), and encouraging courageous decision-making. Effective reengagement can give women a true sense of ownership in the organization. They should believe their workplace can be a satisfying and rewarding one in which to advance their career and wellbeing.
  • Reimagine – Think big! (And big doesn’t have to mean expensive.) Examine from a 30,000-foot level what work is done, how it’s done, where it’s done, and who does it. Identify the key operations that need re-engineering to help optimize the human experience and transform care delivery.

Examples of reimagination could be events or initiatives that support women to share their stories or foster mentoring.  Reimagination also could be offloading, outsourcing, or automating administrative tasks so that more time can be dedicated to delivering work that is most meaningful and impactful. Or go further and restructure roles – for example, creating interdisciplinary care teams that help everybody operate at the top of their license. Other moves could include intelligent new-hire onboarding, optimization of permanent and travel RNs, intelligent patient placement, and automated discharge planning.

Admittedly, the biggest, most “reimagined” ideas may have to be rolled out in phases as health care seeks to balance financial realities with workforce improvements.

This year, let’s take action to reimagine the health care workforce for women. With so much of health care resting on women’s shoulders, it’s time we retain, reengage and reimagine health care with women leading the change. Our future workforce and our health depends on it.

Photo: FotografiaBasica, Getty Images

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A forgotten sliver of land owned by a long-dead prominent Upper Canadian throws wrench in developer’s plans

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Harry Mitz was an elementary school dropout, but a streetwise, wheeling-and-dealing entrepreneur who could make “money out of crap,” according to his son, Lewis.

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That “crap” might have been an old beater of a car that he would buy, say, for $100 and repair with some strategically placed wire coat hangers and tinfoil prior to selling for double what he had paid. The handshake deal would go down at his office in the building he owned at 185 King St. East in downtown Toronto.

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But Mitz’s true bread and butter was dealing in quality heavy machinery: punch presses, metalworking lathes, shears and other industrial gizmos that helped make the workshops and factories of yesteryear Toronto hum.

He earned a fair penny at it, too, more than enough to buy a Cadillac for his wife that, given his humble beginnings, he was too embarrassed to drive himself. Instead, he preferred the mid-range Buick that he parked in the narrow laneway directly behind 185 King, securing access to the spot with a lock and chain.

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Mitz passed away in 2000, whereupon his son, who spent Saturday mornings in his father’s machine shop as a child but grew up to be a real estate lawyer with a thriving practice in the building his father paid $4,500 for in 1941, started parking his Chevy Suburban in the laneway. He would move his vehicle, as Harry had before him, when the neighbours to the west, the Lazareks, asked for permission to access the rear of their furniture store.

A street view of 185 King Street East in Toronto, where a developer planned to build a 33-storey, mixed-use tower.
A street view of 185 King Street East in Toronto, where a developer plans to build a 33-storey, mixed-use tower. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

Strange discovery

Such was life, and commerce, until the younger Mitz sold his property for about $4 million to developer Steve Gupta, who subsequently bought the Lazareks out for several millions more and proposed to build a 33-storey, mixed-use tower on the site — with parking for 33 cars.

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That’s when Mitz learned the laneway he and his father had collectively been parking in since 1941 was not their laneway at all, but a forgotten sliver of land owned by Henry John Boulton, a prominent lawyer, politician and well-established member of the Upper Canadian elite who died 150 years ago.

“This was strange,” he said.

What transpired next was a most unusual Toronto real estate drama, featuring a professional genealogist, some lawyers and, ultimately, a courtroom tiff where some of Boulton’s great-great-great-grandchildren — who may or may not have heard of the man prior to the summer of 2022 — argued that the lane, and presumably whatever monetary value could be attached to it, was theirs.

“The lane was a critical part to Gupta’s future,” Mitz said. “Gupta didn’t have a future without it.”

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If Gupta and his company, Easton’s Group of Hotels, didn’t own the lane, they simply couldn’t build a 33-storey tower on top of it.

Hidden gems

Canadians have a particular enthusiasm for residential real estate, given both its intrinsic and financial value to those lucky enough to be homeowners. But not a lot of attention is paid to the thousands of small property chunks sprinkled about the urban landscape, sometimes in laneways, and Toronto has more than 3,000 of them alone, sometimes not. And sometimes these parcels are so inconsequential that their owners, like Boulton, die without leaving them to an heir.

Known as “orphaned” land in the industry, these properties tend not to attract much notice from anyone — assuming they have been noticed at all — until someone comes along to build something upon them, such as a condominium.

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A developer, or even the guy next door, requires absolute title — a.k.a. ownership — over the land they are building upon. Should some 19th-century ghost pop up in the paperwork to put a wrench in the plan, the builder is legally obligated to try to track down any living descendants to ensure that anyone with ownership rights on the property has an opportunity to claim it before the shovels dig in.

The stakes are high. A hypothetical heir emerging from the woodwork waving a will, or other legal document, that proves the lone-gone relative bequeathed the land to their great grand-dad who, in turn, left it to their grand-dad and so on would put that heir in position for a major payday, particularly in Toronto or Vancouver, where prime downtown real estate doesn’t come cheap.

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“If somebody had shown up and said, ‘I can prove title,’ I would have had to have said to the client — had that happened — ‘Well, you know, you have found the owner now, and now you have to buy it, you have got to negotiate a deal,’” Sanj Sood, the lawyer for Gupta’s group said.

A pedestrian walks past the laneway behind 185 King Street East in Toronto that became the focus of a legal battle.
A pedestrian walks past the laneway behind 185 King Street East in Toronto that became the focus of a legal battle. Photo by Peter J. Thompson/National Post

That explains the friendly voicemail Vanessa Grafi received last summer from Jeff Stewart, a forensic genealogist and a generally polite, soft-spoken man, who earns a living rooting around in the past for clients, including Sood and his colleagues, at Aird and Berlis LLP.

It turns out, Henry John Boulton originally bought a chunk of land known as Lot 21 at the corner of King and George Street in 1824. This was prime, practically waterfront Toronto land. At the time, Boulton, a barrister’s son and grandson of Sir John Strange, a “master of the rolls,” was just a few years shy of being appointed attorney general of Upper Canada. In other words, he was an extremely well-connected bigwig.

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In dealing with Lot 21, Boulton subdivided the property into 185, 183 and 181 King Street East. He sold 185 King in 1833, but kept the narrow strip of laneway behind it, just wide enough for a horse and buggy to squeeze through. He later sold the other two properties, but the strip remained.

There is no mention of the laneway in his last will and testament dated Dec. 17, 1869, and when he died the following year, he left the “balance arising” from the sales of his property to be divided among three of his children, Sophia (Boulton) Forlong, Clara Louise (Boulton) Cayley and George D’Arcy Boulton, all of whom were dead by 1898. (Adding to the mystery of the laneway is why Boulton cut five of his kids out of his will, but we digress.)

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George D’Arcy Boulton had a daughter named Florence, whose great-granddaughter is a York University administrator. Grafi and her relatives have a few “knick-knacks” from the Boultons of old knocking around: a brooch with a lock of Florence’s hair inside and an oil painting.

Grafi’s mother was an enthusiastic amateur historian and enjoyed stories of the past, but there was never any talk about an orphaned laneway until a genealogist called to fill Grafi in.

“It was a fun find,” she said. “And it happens: a long-lost lot looking for relatives, for plans to develop.”

Alas, there was no smoking will in a safety deposit box indicating Grafi had, by way of her ancestors, inherited the lane. Learning more of her family’s history was payment enough, she said, and she left it at that.

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“I had no interest in pursuing it further,” she said.

But not every Boulton descendant was willing to let go of the lane, or the past, so easily.

Document relating to the death and property of lawyer and politician Henry John Boulton, who died in 1870.
Document relating to the death and property of lawyer and politician Henry John Boulton, who died in 1870.

Courtroom drama

Patricia Hertzberg, an artist, and a handful of other members from the Boulton bloodline several generations removed, went to court to oppose the developer’s application seeking a declaration that they owned the laneway behind 185 King.

It did not go well for the descendants, none of whom could produce a will, or any paper evidence, proving they had any legal right to the lane.

“The land does not belong to them as a group or individually because they trace roots to an owner 200 years ago,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Fred Myers said in a December 2022 decision. “This is not a close call.”

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Hertzberg initially agreed to be interviewed, but later begged off, explaining it was a family story without a best before date, and that story would just “have to wait” since she was the only one who truly knew it.

But in court filings, she more fully articulated her motivation to fight for ownership.

“When we learned there was property in downtown Toronto, belonging to our ancestor, where a high-rise development was planned, we were expecting potential compensation,” she said. “However, when we received an application asking the court to simply grant the developer full title to the land, with no compensation to the descendants, we were offended. It felt like an egregious affront to our family.”

Squatter’s rights

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What clinched the deal for Gupta was Harry and Lewis Mitz and the ancient concept of squatter’s rights, formally known in modern jurisprudence as “adverse possession.”

An entrepreneur with a keen eye for action, but apparently not for the fine print, Harry mistakenly believed he had bought the lane behind 185 King when he bought the property. Lewis believed the same. They parked in the lane for 75 years to the exclusion of anyone else, save for those occasions when they gave a neighbour, contractor, friend or anyone else express permission to park in the spot.

The chain securing the lane appeared in the early 1970s. Claiming, however mistakenly, the lane as their own, and occupying it as such for a decade (and more) “shows that they exercised the rights of an owner,” Myers said in his decision.

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The Mitzes took adverse possession of the land, did so peacefully and not a single Boulton appeared over the years to say, “Guys, you can’t park there. That’s our lane.”

In March, Lewis Mitz stood across the street from the lane that caused the whole kerfuffle. There were three orange construction pylons set in front of it. The chain he and his father put there was still in place.

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The 77-year-old was tanned, having recently returned home from a trip to the Bahamas. He wore a brown leather jacket, scarf and stylish glasses, and carried an old leather briefcase that you could imagine a practicing lawyer with more than 50 years’ experience lugging around.

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Mitz takes a wholly unsentimental view of the building he grew up around.

“It is inventory,” he said. “You carry the memories with you.”

His recollections of the Boulton descendants who surfaced in court after the genealogist had done the legwork of finding them were unsentimental, too.

“I am going to be 78 soon, I’ve been around, it is not my first rodeo, and when it comes to money I don’t have to say anymore: they were looking for a payoff,” he said. “They couldn’t prove anything. They thought, ‘Aha, this is my opportunity.’”

Tacked onto the front of 185 King today is a City of Toronto development proposal depicting a tower rising on the land Henry John Boulton purchased in 1824.

The notice makes no mention of the laneway out back.

• Email: joconnor@postmedia.com | Twitter: oconnorwrites

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Although many of the proposed changes to upcoming data privacy laws are supported by experts, there are some that could have serious ramifications for small-to-medium business owners.

The Australian government is currently seeking feedback from businesses on proposed reforms to the Privacy Act. 

The aim of these reforms is to modernise the Act, which was enacted in 1988, and address growing concerns around data privacy and security. 

Businesses have just over a week left to submit their feedback before the consultation period ends. This feedback will inform the development of new legislation, which is expected to be introduced to Parliament later this year.

The Privacy Act Review Report, released by the Attorney General’s Department in February, was a comprehensive review of the Privacy Act 1988.

The review aimed to identify areas where the Act could be strengthened and modernised to protect individuals’ privacy better and ensure that the regulatory framework remains fit for purpose in light of technological advancements and the changing business environment. 

The report made a range of recommendations for reform, including changes to the definition of personal information, the introduction of new privacy rights, and the establishment of a new privacy regulator. The report also highlighted the need to provide more support for small and medium-sized businesses to comply with the new requirements under the Privacy Act.

The proposed overhaul includes measures to strengthen the protection of personal information and give individuals greater control over their data. These measures include a mandatory data breach notification scheme, enhanced privacy consent requirements, and increased penalties for non-compliance with the Act.

However, there are concerns that the proposed changes may significantly burden SMBs, particularly those with limited resources or expertise in data protection.

Many industry groups and business associations are calling for more support and guidance to be provided to SMBs to ensure they can comply with the new requirements without facing undue hardship. 

Overall, the proposed reforms are expected to benefit individuals by strengthening their privacy protection, but it remains to be seen how they will impact businesses, especially SMBs.

According to Daniel Stoten, the Executive Chairman of Localsearch, the industry requires additional consultation and support structures, especially for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). 

He believes that the proposed compliance requirements could pose a significant burden to SMBs, which are already struggling due to the ongoing pandemic. Therefore, he recommends providing more support streams and structures to help SMBs meet the new requirements without facing undue hardship.

Stoten explains: “Localsearch supports consumer protections and responsible marketing, and we understand the reasoning behind the proposal given widespread concerns about cybersecurity following last year’s major cyber breaches with Optus and Medibank.

“However, we believe further consultation, additional support streams and structures for SMBs are needed to support the industry, as the compliance requirements, in particular, could be a serious burden to already struggling businesses,” says Stoten

Removal of exemption

The Privacy Act has previously exempted small businesses with an annual turnover of $3 million or less. However, this exemption is set to be removed under the proposed changes.

Stoten says: “We urge the government to explain clearly to small business owners what is happening so they don’t run the risk of accidentally doing something they shouldn’t. There needs to be adequate training and even a compliance grace period to make the transition as easy as possible, with minimal costs.

“Small business owners are already struggling post-pandemic with inflation, supply chain issues and a tight labour market. Our 2022 Australian Small Business Report found that 78% of SMBs are fearful of a recession this year.

“This is a complex 300 page proposal – your average Mum-and-Dad business simply isn’t going to have the time or resources to understand it, let alone abide by the proposed changes.”

Digital advertising changes proposed

The Review also proposes changes around direct marketing, targeting and trading which could have a profound impact on how the digital advertising industry operates. 

Stoten says: “The ability to harness data about an individual to better digitally target advertising to them based on their preferences and past behaviours has been one of the most impactful developments for this industry in its history.

“Digital retargeting, in particular, is a key business driver for small business owners, who may have less budget for traditional advertising methods, to market themselves to customers.

“Although we support consumers’ right to opt-out of targeted marketing ads if they so wish, this doesn’t come without consequences. It could result in irrelevant ads being marketed to the wrong people, wasting business owners’ hard-earned investment and consumers’ time.” 

While we won’t know the exact impacts of the Review until the federal government has made a decision on the proposal, it is clear that small businesses could be seriously affected. Localsearch encourages small businesses to have their say via the government website’s simple form.

Stoten concludes: “I have no doubt that some of the proposed changes could seriously damage many of the 2.5 million small business owners in Australia, who are already struggling to keep their heads above water. Some wouldn’t be able to survive.”

Businesses are encouraged to submit their feedback on the 116 proposals to the Attorney-General’s Department before the deadline of March 31, 2023.

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interoperability, rope, braid

Health data interoperability recently took a major step forward when the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the first six organizations as Qualified Health Information Networks (QHINs) under the Trusted Exchange Framework and Common Agreement (TEFCA).

Many predicted the coming “data tsunami” once the floodgates opened and information was shared more widely, and discussed how increased interoperability would create both opportunities and challenges. When the QHIN approvals were announced, Micky Tripathi, National Coordinator for Health IT, mentioned “operational friction in interoperability” and the challenges of moving information between enterprises — which is a primary issue that QHINs seek to address.

The challenge of finding diagnostically relevant data

As more information flows freely between systems, it will create an even bigger challenge for clinicians: finding diagnostically relevant information amidst the flood of incoming data. Healthcare information is currently organized using different terminologies and coding systems to support classification of information into separate domains such as diagnoses, labs, medications, orders, procedures, etc., primarily to support billing transactions and internal system workflows. The terminologies and codes are not organized to enable a clinician to quickly see how well a condition is being managed for a specific patient.

Clinicians are already frustrated with their EHRs, in part because of difficulties finding the information they need to determine how well a condition is being managed or if a patient is responding to treatment. Under value-based care, it is more critical than ever for clinical users to see longitudinal views of diagnostically relevant information for each of a patient’s conditions so they can take appropriate action and document accordingly.

This means clinicians need systems that do more than just support the coding of diagnoses and transactions; they also need their systems to diagnostically filter information at the point of care and present them with actionable views. In other words, clinicians require a new form of clinical decision support that presents the specific information needed to make decisions – regardless of the source. That new capability might be called “diagnostic interoperability.”

Time for new tools

The 21st Century Cures Act, TEFCA, and the imminent establishment of QHINs will, for the first time, make the long-awaited advent of interoperability a reality. Systems will be sending SNOMED, ICD-10, CPT, RxNorm, LOINC, HCPCS, and a host of other codes and narrative notes back-and-forth as part of the data tsunami, leaving it to the receiving systems to make sense of it for clinicians. The timing is perfect for the adoption of a new set of tools that make diagnostically relevant information discoverable and actionable by clinicians at the point of care.

A core requirement for these new tools is to enable a clinician to select any diagnosis, problem, or clinical issue for a patient and quickly view the hallmark indicators for that problem.

TEFCA, QHINs, FHIR and terminology standards will facilitate the transmission and receiving of information, but the critical task for clinicians will be finding the information needed to assess, evaluate, manage and treat a specific problem. Clinical users need to quickly view the symptoms, history, physical exam findings, test orders and results, therapies, comorbidities, sequalae and other data points related to any specific condition.

In the new world of interoperability, incoming information will be in a variety of terminologies and formats: ICD10-CM and SNOMED for problems and diagnoses, LOINC and CPT for lab orders and results, CPT, HCPCS, and ICD10-PCS for procedures and therapies, RxNorm and NDC for drugs, and a number of other specialized code sets. While these code sets and terminologies are useful for classifying information in a specific domain, they were not designed to work together to present a comprehensive view of a condition, nor for use by clinicians at the point of care.

Current EHRs typically organize this information into separate “tabs” or “buckets” in the medical record. To monitor the course of a disease, a user must navigate between sections and spend time hunting for the relevant details – which takes time that could be better-spent interacting with the patient and managing their condition. The EHR may contain all the relevant information a clinician needs for decision making, but finding the precise details they need is not always easy.

A better way

In the world of value-based care, the effective monitoring and management of chronic conditions requires that all relevant information for a diagnosis be instantly available to the clinician at the point of care, without requiring clinicians to waste precious time searching for details. A better way would be to empower clinicians with a clinical toolset that allows them to select any condition and immediately see a diagnostically organized view of all the relevant details. Such technology could replace manual searches by automatically filtering information for diagnostic relevancy based on the codified details and using natural language processing and mappings to organize the items.

In addition to diagnostic filtering and presentation, the ideal clinical toolset must also integrate with existing system workflows and provide point-of-care services to evaluate the patient’s medical record for adherence to clinical best practice guidelines and mandated quality measures, appropriateness of diagnostic coding, and sufficiency of documentation.

Without a new set of tools that clinicians can access at the point of care, the availability of information from QHINs will increase provider burdens because they will struggle to find the information needed to evaluate a patient, take action, complete documentation, and move to the next patient.

Basic interoperability is about to become real. The next step is diagnostic interoperability – which could very well be the impetus for value-base care success and for the transformation of EHRs from clinician burden to essential tool.

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Slowdown in housing market might be turning around

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New figures released by the Canadian Real Estate Association (CREA) on March 15 show that the slowdown in Canada’s housing market might be turning around with home sales increasing 2.3 per cent month over month in February.

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The agency, which represents more than 100,000 realtors nationwide, reported that the number of homes sold in February decreased by 40 per cent from the record-breaking February experienced a year earlier — just before the Bank of Canada began its interest rate tightening cycle.

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New listings also declined 7.9 per cent month over month in February, and the Home Price Index (HPI) ticked down by 1.1 per cent to $704,300.

Traditionally, February is not a busy month for home sales or new listings, but it is a month when buyers are just beginning to explore the market. According to industry watchers, this year’s traditionally busy spring housing market is among the most anticipated in recent history.

“February’s data contained the potential of a more robust market to come, but to repeat the bottom line from last month, we won’t know what the 2023 market has in store until the spring,” Jill Oudil, Chair of CREA said in the report. “While we’re not seeing it in the sales or listings data just yet, I would expect homeowners are getting properties ready for the market and prospective buyers are getting mortgage pre-approvals.”

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As CREA’s Senior Economist explains, there are parallels between 2019 and the forecast for spring 2023.

“The similarities between 2023 and the recovery year of 2019 continued to emerge in February, with sales up, the market tightening, and month-over-month price declines getting smaller,” CREA’s Shaun Cathcart said in the report. “But the biggest similarity was a sharp drop in seasonally adjusted new listings. Future sellers, many of whom will also be buyers, are likely biding their time until the optimum time to list and buy something else. For most, that’s in the spring. Will buyers jump off the fence to snap homes up in 2023 once they finally start to hit the market? They did in 2019.”

While there is plenty of optimism for the spring housing market, the shortage of inventory cannot be ignored. Christopher Alexander, president of RE/MAX Canada said the decline in new listings over February is the most concerning detail to come out of CREA’s report.

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“We need more product,” the RE/MAX president said in an interview. “One concerning thing about the CREA report is that inventory went down again month over month.”

One factor that could bring some relief on the supply front — albeit with other potential ramifications — is that homeowners hold a tredemendous amount of real estate debt.

Although lenders are doing their due diligence to help keep their clients in their homes, interest rate hikes have left many with more debt than they can handle, raising the possibility of an increase in distressed home sales.

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But those alone would not be enough to satisfy the demand, Alexander said.

The market would still need a rush of new listing from would-be sellers who have been sitting on the sidelines, something some economists have predicted will transpire.

“Even if we get what economists have predicted … I think it’s just going to be enough to create a balance where some homes will sell at asking, some will sell below and some will sell over,” Alexander said. “Balance would be really good for homeowners right now who would consider moving but feel trapped because there’s just not enough properties that meet their criteria — and obviously, interest rates are higher and so it’s a lot more expensive to buy what you want.”

• Email: shcampbell@postmedia.com

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Chris Warner: Commercial real estate can be an important additional asset class for the right investors

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The best-performing asset class in many portfolios last year was commercial real estate. That was certainly the case for Nicola Wealth Management Ltd. and other firms that use these types of investment strategies.

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Upon hearing this, some investors may wonder, “How could that possibly be the case when real estate investment trusts (REITs) seem to have been the worst-performing asset class of 2022?” It appears to be a paradox, but it provides a lesson that investment vehicles can matter as much as the asset classes themselves.

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To that end, many Canadians only diversify by utilizing publicly traded stocks and fixed-income instruments, whereas we believe that commercial real estate can be an important additional asset class for the right investors.

In this area, Nicola Wealth primarily invests in real estate through the use of limited partnerships (RELPs), where we directly own, develop, and manage properties. Investors also have the option to buy shares in REITs, either directly or indirectly through exchange-traded funds (ETFs). There are differences between RELPs and REITs, such as liquidity, valuation, and investment philosophy. In 2022, the most significant difference was price.

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The characteristic of REITs to quickly reprice based on sentiment, due to their publicly traded nature, was very evident in 2022. This isn’t uncommon. In times of uncertainty, REIT share prices will often deviate from the actual market prices of the underlying property they hold (the net asset value or NAV). This means they can trade above or below the intrinsic value of the pool of real estate itself.

Let’s draw a point of distinction here between price and NAV. Price is what one pays to buy a REIT or a RELP today. The NAV is the assessed value of the underlying holdings.

As mentioned, the price of a REIT may be heavily influenced by investor sentiment and can decouple from the NAV. By contrast, the price of RELPs is typically almost the same as the NAV; it will usually lag the NAV only by the RELP’s frequency of a full valuation.

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REIT price vs. NAV

For REITs, the NAV is the book price, which is the assumed value of all the real estate assets minus any debts and obligations.

A price/book ratio of one would mean that the trading price of the REIT exactly reflects the current NAV. Less than one suggests the REIT is either undervalued or that investors expect its price to decline. Greater than one suggests the REIT is either overvalued or that it might be expected to grow in price. Theoretically, a REIT should trade at a price that is a slight premium above its NAV considering the benefit of its high liquidity versus physical ownership of real estate.

For example, one of Canada’s largest REITs, Canadian Apartment Rentals REIT, traded at a premium in 2018 and 2019 when markets were more stable. When the pandemic emerged and roiled investors, the REIT’s price dropped too. Then in 2021, as markets boomed, it began trading at a premium again.

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Enter 2022 and its very high inflation, sky-rocketing interest rates, and the rare double-decline in stocks and bonds. Canadian Apartment Rentals REIT had one of its most significant valuation falls in recent memory as investors quickly speculated that the future of commercial real estate would become challenging.

Why buy REITs?

Through this example, it becomes evident that REITs can be considerably influenced by investor sentiment, just like public markets. Some might argue this defeats the point of having commercial real estate in a portfolio. However, long-term investors who utilize REITs might point to the real rate of return as a counterpoint, relative to public stocks.

In all, what does this tell us? First, there is a relatively strong long-term case for investing in commercial real estate, depending on the investor. Second, publicly traded investments can be subject to rapid speculation based on fear and greed (note that I am not using those terms as pejoratives, fear/greed indexes are long-used means of summarizing prevailing investor sentiment using a variety of qualitative data). Third, it reinforces why some choose to own real estate through the RELP structure, believing that the investment price and NAV will be closer to real market rates.

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REIT vs. RELP pricing

A natural question may follow the points above: Perhaps REITs declined too quickly, but won’t all commercial real estate eventually follow? In my opinion, the short answer would be “no.”

The inference of the question is that the RELP’s use of a different valuation structure means it will be slower to “catch up” with REITs. While no one can predict the future, there are plenty of reasons for us to believe this won’t be the case.

For instance, RELPs may use many active strategies to hedge downside risk. They don’t usually buy commercial real estate as a monolithic asset class. They don’t focus solely on collecting rents.

Instead, my experience is that RELPs mainly seek diverse, targeted strategies that will perform well in both existing market environments and in the future.

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One interesting point about REITs is that the pricing mechanism can occasionally shift too far to the negative, potentially positioning REITs attractively for the future. Essentially, if a REIT is well-capitalized and is producing steady cash flow, it can be an opportune time for entry when a REIT’s price is well under its NAV (and one even we have considered on occasion).

That said, our preferred long-term approach remains to recommend the RELP structure for potential return maximization and volatility reduction in a diversified portfolio. Our analysis of the two investment vehicles has historically demonstrated higher downside protection for RELPs over REITs, potentially leading to greater long-term returns.

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In all, investing in commercial real estate can be a helpful addition to many investors’ portfolios, so long as it is approached strategically. One should understand how the characteristics of RELPs and REITs align with an investor’s profile (including their risk tolerance) and how these investments fit into the overall investment plan.

Chris Warner, FCSI, CIM, CFP, PFP, is a wealth adviser at Nicola Wealth Management Ltd.

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According to the latest first-quarter AICPA & CIMA Economic Outlook Survey, US business executives still have significant concerns about the economy, but there has been a notable increase in optimism regarding revenue and profit expectations and other key performance indicators for the coming year. 

This survey collected responses from chief executive officers, chief financial officers, controllers, and other certified public accountants who hold executive and senior management accounting roles in US companies.

Although there has been progressed, with 23% of business executives expressing optimism about the US economy’s prospects over the next 12 months, there are still many concerns.

Only 12% felt optimistic in the previous quarter, which was the lowest level since early 2009. Factors such as inflation, rising interest rates, and geopolitical concerns continue to weigh heavily on the US outlook. Additionally, 90% of those surveyed expressed concerns about the potential impacts of a recession, with 15% of respondents indicating that they were significantly concerned.

The survey indicates that business executives are more optimistic about their companies’ financial performance despite these concerns. The results show that many expect revenue and profits to increase in the coming year, which is a positive sign for the US economy.

This quarter, there are several positive indicators:

Business executives are anticipating a slight profit growth of 0.6% over the next 12 months, which is a significant improvement from the negative or zero growth projections over the past two quarters. Additionally, 12-month revenue growth projections have increased from an expected rate of 2.1% last quarter to 2.6%.

Furthermore, the number of business executives expressing optimism about their own organisations’ prospects over the next 12 months has increased from 35% to 47% quarter over quarter. This positive trend suggests business leaders are more confident in their companies’ abilities to weather economic uncertainties.

Additionally, more business executives are expecting their companies to expand at least somewhat over the next 12 months, with 52% of respondents indicating expansion plans, up from 47% last quarter. Among businesses with over a billion dollars in revenue, the proportion expecting expansion is even higher, with 68% indicating plans to expand.

The survey also revealed other important findings:

U.S. business executives’ outlook on the global economy for the next 12 months has improved, with the proportion expressing pessimism decreasing from 72% in the previous quarter to 48% currently.

For the sixth consecutive quarter, inflation remains the top concern for business executives. However, the challenges of “Availability of Skilled Personnel” and “Employee and Benefit Costs” have switched places and are now the second and third most significant challenges, respectively.

“While hiring demands may be cooling a bit, we’re not seeing widespread layoffs – most companies are looking to interim strategies to protect their workforce options. In fact, a third of business executives say they’re looking to hire immediately, while ‘availability of skilled personnel’ continues to be a top concern from the survey.” said Tom Hood, the AICPA & CIMA’s executive vice president for business engagement and growth.

“This illustrates the unique pressures companies have been under the past year, with so much uncertainty clouding financial modeling,”

he full report can be downloaded in the below link:  https://www.aicpa.org/professional-insights/download/1q2023-aicpa-business-and-industry-economic-outlook-survey

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