American Self Storage Association (SSA)
The first association of substance formed to respond to a fledgling industry soon to be known as self-storage, was the United States based Self-Storage Association (SSA) It was formed to represent the self-storage industry across North America, which included Canada.
As the industry grew, the association had to re-organize several times to attempt to respond to its members needs. The first re-organization was to divide North America into nine regions, the ninth region being Canada. The Self-Service Storage Association of Canada was formed as a framework to operate as the ninth SSA region. However, the structure of nine regions became cumbersome, and the SSA subsequently reorganized North America into three regions: Western, Central, and Eastern, negating the need for the Self-Service Storage Association of Canada.
The self-storage industry continued to grow at an astonishing rate, and the SSA found itself unable to meet the needs of many localized issues. So, with increasing demand from various individual states for more local representation, the SSA once more reacted to its membership and assumed the role of a “national association” or “umbrella”, responding to global issues, yet providing guidance, education and leadership to State “affiliate” associations.
The Canadian Self-Storage Association is an “affiliate” member of the SSA.
Self-Service Storage Association of Canada
The Canadian Department of Consumer and Corporate Affairs approved the Letters Patent to the Self-Service Storage Association of Canada on 24 March 1980. Based in British Columbia, it was formed with the assistance of the then President (the late Don Daniels) SSA. As mentioned above, the initial mission of the Self-Service Storage Association of Canada was to be Region 9 of the SSA. With the restructuring of the SSA into three regions, The Self-Service Storage Association of Canada was not required and became dormant.
Ontario Self Storage Association
While the Self-Service Storage Association of Canada was lying dormant, Joe Kormos reacted to a Government of Ontario tax threat by starting the Ontario Self Storage Association in 2001. Through Joe’s leadership, the Ontario association was able to stall regulation 325.01 dealing with Business Taxes and self-storage, while he began an to lobby and educate the Government, exposing the negative consequences of the proposed legislation. Happily, the government never passed this legislation.
Its primary mission completed, the Ontario Self Storage Association also became dormant. However, the power of a collective group to represent our industry to government had been clearly demonstrated, and seeds were now sown for a new Canadian association.