AEC news

On April 4, Bob Langlois, Managing Director and Vice-President, awarded this year's winner of Seneca College's Steve McLean Memorial Scholarship to Steven Eakins. It is a $1000 award given to a graduating student in the Real Property Administration or Real Property Administration Accelerated program with above average grades in all RPA courses. Preference is given to students demonstrating strong work ethic, meaningful contributions to the camaraderie and collegial nature of the class and involvement in extra-curricular activities.

Aside from being named after a well-loved and remembered AEC practitioner, this scholarship is of significance to AEC as it embodies the model of Unique Abilities in which we believe. As a strength-based organization, AEC believes that the balance of technical aptitude and the ability to build strong and enjoyable relationships with internal and external stakeholders is critical for any Real Estate valuation professional. This year's recipient Steven Eakins epitomizes this balance and we wish him all the best! Congratulations, Steven!

After all the numbers were crunched, AEC’s Calgary-based Assessment & Tax Management (ATM) team proved that 2012 was a productive year. It was one marked by increased efficiency and unprecedented delivery of our Energy clients’ requirements. The final 2012 tax payment approval reports have been tallied; they have processed more than $165M in taxes for our Energy clients – in more than 450 jurisdictions in Western Canada and the Northern US!

The ATM process for an Energy client is an intricate one. It includes review of assessment data, verification of tax levies, and identification of anomalies and opportunities for reductions as well as allocation of cost centers to wells, pipelines, surface equipment, and electric power systems.

A key contributor to the 2012 success was AEC’s exclusive Canadian rights to the ONESOURCE Property Tax™ (OPT) software system. Using OPT allowed the ATM team not only to efficiently process the immense volume of taxes, but to also provide detailed reporting to our clients on their tax liability. Where requested, taxes were uploaded directly into our client’s payable system – a practise that is becoming more popular as companies move to online payment approvals. These improvements have allowed us to provide our clients with the most advanced customized reporting in the area of property taxation allowing them to be paid on time, avoiding costly penalties.

No, it is not what you think! AEC is proud to announce that we are opening an Ottawa office to support the growing needs of our clients in the nation’s capital.

With the recent addition of key team members, Gordon Jones, Monika Cholewa and Brian Merkel, we are thrilled with our expanded capability to meet the needs of our clients and respond to new challenges arising from the 2013-2016 re-assessment. 

We are very excited about increasing our capacity to deliver our core service and to tap into the knowledge, experience and track record of the key senior-level personnel that will form the cornerstone of our Ottawa office. The addition of the Ottawa team strengthens AEC's presence in the hospitality and industrial sector while increasing our bench strength in the area of municipal taxation expertise.

This is another new and exciting chapter for AEC, always looking onward and forward to deliver the Gold Standard in the Property Tax Advisory industry.

We are very excited to announce that we are expanding our lease audit service to include both Realty Tax Allocations and Common Area Maintenance Charges, under the direction of Directors of Lease Audits, Angelo Walters and Larry Young. 

As an acknowledged advocate for tenants, no other firm has the depth and expertise for both Realty Tax and CAM lease audit services as AEC, with coast-to-coast national coverage, spanning the Retail, Office, Commercial and Industrial sectors.

Please read the announcement for details on how our clients benefit from the new expanded Lease Audit offering. For questions, you can contact Angelo and Larry directly via their profile pages.

We are seeking to build a leadership team that is focused on “moving the needle” while embracing and building upon individual strengths. The key role of our leaders is to pay witness to our strengths and align them appropriately in order to increase the value of the organization and ultimately create new opportunities for our people and our clients alike.

It is for this reason and with great pleasure that we announce the appointment of Shawna Burke-Martin to the role of Managing Director of our growing energy practice. The formal announcement details her accomplishments and highlights the definitive reason we are glad to call her one of our leaders. Congratulations, Shawna!

No one likes change ... so why do we do it?

In the case of the AEC website, other changes begot this change. We are excited and want to share these positive changes with you, our partners and clients.

For instance, the focus of this website is to give more to the client. We hope to convey the knowledge and unique processes that we employ to eliminate dangers, mitigate risk and leverage opportunities for our clients. This is evident in Our Unique Method®* and Our Library sections. In Our Unique Method®, we share what differentiates us from other clients, as well as the common dangers that we see in our daily practice. Our Library is also a brand-new section where we lay out in simplified format the differences by Canadian jurisdiction. We also provide a section where we can update clients on any legislation changes that may impact them. Instead of finding out about these too late, we are proactive in providing the guidance to our clients. We have also included a pertinent dates calendar that is downloadable - a handy reference guide for the busy professional who needs to keep track of their property tax and appeals deadlines. Finally, we have uploaded videos from previous sessions; just because you have missed a session doesn't mean you miss out on the learnings.