Locksmith in Kanata, from Beaverbrook's first streets to Kanata North

Kanata was farmland in March Township until the 1960s, when the developer Bill Teron assembled more than 1,200 hectares and set out to build a garden city with houses tucked among trees and green space. The first street, Tiffany Crescent in today's Beaverbrook, went in during 1964.

Teron also set land aside for industry, and that decision shaped the rest of Kanata's story. The City of Kanata was incorporated in 1978, grew fast through the 1980s and 1990s as technology companies filled the business park, and had about 59,700 residents when it became part of the amalgamated City of Ottawa in 2001. It has kept growing since, west toward the Carp River and south into Fernbank.

For a locksmith, that history means two very different kinds of work in one place. On the residential side, houses from every decade since the 1960s, each with the door hardware of its day and whatever owners have added since. On the business side, offices, labs and warehouses where dozens of people need keys or fobs, and where those people change jobs often.

A large share of Kanata's homes are townhouses and condominium units, especially around Kanata Lakes, Bridlewood and the newer streets to the west. They raise a question that detached houses do not: which locks are yours to change?

The rule of thumb is simple. The door into your own unit, and usually the door from your own garage, are yours. Doors into shared hallways, the underground parking, the bike room and the mailroom belong to the condominium corporation, and many are on a master key system that the property manager controls. A locksmith in Kanata will rekey your unit lock and leave the common doors alone unless the manager asks otherwise.

If you rent a townhouse or condo unit, the Residential Tenancies Act applies as well: a tenant may not change the locks without the landlord's consent, and a landlord may not change them during a tenancy without giving the tenant new keys.

You get a price on the phone once you describe the job, and the price is confirmed before work starts. That applies to a lockout at midnight as much as a booked rekey.

In Kanata, the things that change the price are mostly the number of locks and their type. A new-build townhouse with one brand of hardware is quick to rekey. An older house with mixed brands, a mortise lock on a side door or high-security cylinders takes longer, and an office with dozens of cylinders is quoted from a site visit.

Work at night or on a weekend costs more than a booked daytime visit, and rural properties past the urban edge can carry a travel charge. You will hear about both on the phone.