When news of a possible swine flu pandemic began to trickle out of Mexico in April, landlords and property managers across Canada congratulated themselves on their foresight.
Canada's major office buildings and retail and industrial malls are likely the best-prepared commercial structures in the world to face a global pandemic, says the Building Owners and Managers Association of Canada. It is all thanks to steps taken three years ago when BOMA Toronto kick-started a process that resulted in a comprehensive "pandemic guide for building owners and managers."
Published in April, 2007, it sets out what building owners and property managers should do to keep their buildings operating and avoid legal liability if a pandemic strikes. Included was a 50-page workbook that is, in essence, a template for steps to be followed.
The workbook covers everything from communicating preparedness plans to tenants, to ensuring staff do not spread disease, to how to maintain key staff roles and systems as more and more people fall ill.
"To the best of our knowledge, Canada has the only pandemic preparedness plan for commercial properties in the world," says Randall Rothbart, a BOMA Toronto director and a partner in law firm Solomon Rothbart Goodman LLP, whose contribution to the plan was writing the legal implications.
"Our rationale was that, if a pandemic strikes, then we must be ready to contain its spread while maintaining business operations within our members' buildings," he says. "When it looked like H1N1 might turn into a pandemic, we were ready."
Whether landlords could face lawsuits if they failed to do their best to help contain a pandemic or if tenants faced business losses because entire buildings had to be shut down is a grey area, he adds.
"However, now that there are guidelines in place, there may be an argument that landlords who fail to follow them may be liable for damages," he says.
This enlightened approach to the dangers posed by pandemics was the brainchild of Cheryl Gray, senior vice-president of real estate services at Bentall LP in Toronto. Bentall manages 77 million square feet of commercial space across Canada and in the state of Washington, including 200 King St. W. in Toronto and the Bentall Centre in Vancouver.
"The idea came to me in 2003, shortly after the SARS epidemic struck Toronto," she says. "I could easily see the impact other diseases could have on building operations right across Canada if a real pandemic struck."
In early 2006, Ms. Gray began talking with other property managers such as Redcliff Realty Group, GWL Realty Advisors, Brookfield Properties Corp. and Oxford Properties Group Inc. Together, they agreed to strike a committee under the umbrella of BOMA to create a comprehensive pandemic preparedness plan.
"We took as a template work done by the Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters association," she says. "It was not to be a business continuity plan but one to ensure availability of labour and service at our buildings. There was lots of angst about pandemics then and an almost impending sense of doom."
The final plan was not a document destined to sit on a bookshelf and be dusted off should the need arise. Almost immediately after its release, major landlords such as Bentall and Redcliff began taking steps to prepare for what they saw as the eventuality of a pandemic.
"We started about 18 months ago by doing three key things," says Jonathan Fleischer, executive vice-president at Redcliff, which manages 26 million square feet of commercial, retail and industrial space, including major office towers such as 320 Bay St., 1 Yonge St., 65 Queen St. W. and 40 University Ave. in Toronto.
"The first thing was to send a letter to all tenants to inform them what Redcliff was doing to prepare for a pandemic and suggesting things they might do as well," Mr. Fleischer says.
The second was to install hand-sanitizing stations in all lobbies, outside all washrooms and in service areas used by subcontractors, such as cleaners, security staff and delivery people. The third was to install posters in key areas advising of the threat of communicable diseases and the need to wash hands regularly as an effective preventive measure.
Redcliff, like other major property managers, also issued key staff with emergency kits that included rubber gloves, face masks and hand sanitizers. It even went so far as to stock buildings with emergency food supplies with a shelf life of up to five years.
Property managers then turned to ensuring there would be enough trained staff to maintain buildings. "That includes cross-training our own staff to ensure there are enough people available to maintain building systems, and reaching out to our service providers to ensure they have preparedness plans," Mr. Fleischer says.
"We made use of all the lessons learned from events like 9/11, Y2K and the great power blackout earlier in the decade."
When news of a possible swine flu pandemic began to appear, most major landlords activated the plan's first steps toward meeting the challenge, Ms. Gray says. At Bentall, that meant forming a five-person crisis management committee, which met daily by conference call.
"We identified staff who had recently been to Mexico and reminded them of the dangers and warning signs, and then regularly informed tenants and our building owners of both the progress of the disease and the measures we were taking should it begin to affect our operations," she adds.
The wisdom of being prepared aside, most property managers understand a severe pandemic may still wreak havoc on operations.
"We have told tenants that, in case of a pandemic, we will try to maintain operations but there may indeed be some disruptions," Mr. Fleischer says. "They should also make their own plans. We will not, for example, provide screening of visitors to our buildings. We will restrict deliveries to tenants and, in case of a severe event, we may have to close a building down."
BOMA has tried to think of everything that landlords and owners can do to contain a pandemic and maintain operations, Mr. Rothbart says, but acknowledges that a pandemic could still throw a curve ball.
"A pandemic would be a moving target," Mr. Fleischer says. "We can't say for sure how we will respond until an event occurs."
© The Globe and Mail
