Ontario condominium boards regularly deal with information that should not necessarily be available to everyone. Unit-specific matters, legal issues, employee matters, and other sensitive subjects can all arise during an ordinary board meeting.

For many years, the standard practice for Ontario condominium board meetings has been to separate these matters into a confidential set of minutes. The general minutes identify the topic and indicate that the substantive record appears in the confidential minutes.

That approach is useful, but it can also create a misunderstanding about what “confidential” actually means.

There is no separate category of confidential board meeting under Ontario condominium law. A board has a board meeting. During that meeting, it may discuss information that should not be disclosed to a particular person or group.

That distinction matters because confidentiality is not determined simply by the name of the document or even by the subject matter alone. It also depends on who is receiving the information.

Confidential From Whom?

Information concerning a particular unit, for example, may not be appropriate for circulation to the owners generally, while the owner of that unit may have different access rights.

The same principle can apply in less obvious situations. A board may review competing vendor quotations and record those details in its minutes. Those minutes may be entirely appropriate for the owners, but that does not necessarily mean the corporation should post them in the common areas where competing vendors may see one another’s pricing.

A better question is often not simply, “Is this confidential?”

It is, “Confidential from whom?”

This is why separate confidential minutes are best understood as a practical records-management tool. They help identify information that is more likely to require restricted treatment, but they do not by themselves determine who may ultimately see every piece of information in them.

What Has the CAT Said?

The Condominium Authority Tribunal has taken a more technical approach to the issue. Its decisions have emphasized that simply calling minutes “confidential” or “in camera” does not automatically make the entire record exempt from disclosure.

The preferred approach reflected in those decisions is to maintain the record of the board meeting and, when the minutes are requested, redact only the information that the requester is not entitled to receive.

That does not make separate confidential minutes useless. They can still be a practical way to organize sensitive material. It does mean, however, that the label itself should not be treated as the final answer to a records request.

A Few Practical Points

Separate sensitive topics — If a general topic turns into a discussion about a specific unit or other sensitive matter, treat that portion as a separate agenda item where practical.

Review the “public” minutes — Do not assume they contain nothing confidential. They may still include information that should not be shared with every person or posted in every setting.

Use “confidential” as an organizational tool — It helps identify information that may require restricted access, but it does not determine who is entitled to see it.

Disclosure belongs to the corporation — A minute taker can help organize the record, but deciding what should be disclosed or redacted may require management or legal review.

In Closing

The distinction between “public” and “confidential” minutes can be useful for organizing the corporation’s records, but neither label determines access on its own.

What ultimately matters is the information itself and who is entitled to receive it, on a case-by-case basis.