what's in ottawa's draft renoviction bylaw? councillors want to know
4 minute read
a motion to put the draft renoviction bylaw on the table will be before city council on june 10. if council votes in favour, it would be back in front of the planning and housing committee on july 8.
jean levac
/
postmedia
changes to provincial legislation will supersede a long-awaited proposal for a municipal renoviction bylaw, according to a report to ottawa city councillors.
but members of the city’s planning and housing committee say they want to at least be able to see what the draft bylaw looks like.
renoviction is the illegal practice of evicting tenants under the pretense of renovating a rental unit, only to put that unit back on the market at a much higher rent. in january 2025, ottawa council asked city staff to look into the possibility of crafting a renoviction bylaw like those in other ontario cities, including hamilton, toronto and london.
the review process was to take more than a year, with a draft bylaw scheduled to be in front of the planning and housing committee on may 20.
but that was postponed while staff examined amendments to ontario’s residential tenancies act, 2006, through bill 97 and bill 60.
the amendments, which take effect in july and september, strengthen tenant protections and enhance requirements for evictions due to renovations and repairs. the amendments “substantially address the policy objectives that were intended to be achieved through a municipal by-law,” the city staff report said.
meanwhile, residential tenancy regulation remains a matter of provincial jurisdiction and a municipal licensing regime “may introduce overlapping regulatory requirements and administrative complexity,” it added.
but members of the planning and housing committee argued the review took more than a year and they had not been able to see the draft bylaw yet.
“my incredible frustration today is that people keep referring to a draft by-law that no one has seen,” said somerset coun. ariel troster, who presented the motion for a bylaw review in january 2025.
“i am not here to debate the merits of a renoviction bylaw,” she said. “i’m here just to get it back on the table for us to actually have that conversation. i’ve never seen a case in my four years on council where we have directed staff to do something and they’ve come back and said: ‘actually, we don’t think we need to do it.'”
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there was nothing in the original motion that gave staff the ability or the authority to withhold the report and the bylaw from council, troster contended. those who might be affected were consulted, they responded in good faith and they expected to see what the bylaw proposed, she said.
“council voted 19 to four to direct them to do the work. then they did the work, and they sent out a memo saying, ‘actually, we don’t want to show it to you.’ that is what the conversation is about today. release the bylaw. put it on the table for democratic debate.”
residents who had received n13 eviction notices to end their tenancies spoke to the committee about the stress and uncertainty they faced when they received those notices.
andre robert said that, in his case, the renovations were originally to include minor work such as changing the flooring and light fixtures and installing exhaust fans, but that was changed to include more major renovations. an electrician’s report said the units needed to be empty because all of the wiring needed to be pulled out of the wall, he said.
some tenants left the building and their units have been rented to tenants paying far more, robert said.
“i worry that my mental health can’t handle another year’s long fight with stress and uncertainty,” he told the committee. “i know that business guys are buying up buildings with low-paying tenants, and they are handing out n13 notices in the hope it scares away tenants.”
tenants’ rights organizations have argued that an effective bylaw would ensure two things: requiring proof both that renovations were necessary and that it was necessary for the tenants to vacate during the renovations. under hamilton’s bylaw, for example, a landlord must apply for a renovation licence within seven days after issuing an n13 eviction notice to a tenant.
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“time and again, when i represent individuals like andre, the landlords aren’t actually interested in renovating,” said sarah sproule, the director of legal services at community legal services of ottawa.
“they want to push tenants out. they’re hoping that the n13 notice will be enough. and it often is.”
bill 97 will not stop renovictions, sproule told the committee.
“bill 97 provides no deterrence or protection,” she said. “with bill 97, there are two new things. number one, the landlord must now provide timelines for repairs after a tenant says they want to return. number two, it has increased fines for provincial offenses, which are rarely prosecuted by the ministry of housing. bill 97 is about what can happen after the eviction, after the harm is caused to vulnerable tenants and to our affordable housing stock.”
a city of ottawa feasibility study released in january 2025 argued that a renoviction bylaw would be costly. based on hamilton’s experience, it would cost ottawa $2.2 million a year to hire bylaw officers and to pay for other resources to enforce such a bylaw.
the eastern ontario landlord organization has argued that a bylaw would make a handful of renters better off, but only in the very short term, while making repairs and renovations more expensive and time-consuming, thus reducing housing supply.
the motion to put the draft bylaw on the table will be before city council on june 10. if council votes in favour, it would be back in front of the planning and housing committee on july 8, just before council’s summer break and just before the municipal election period. it’s a tight timeline, troster said.
“my concern here is a major abrogation of democracy,” she said. “and, frankly, we’re taking advantage of those people who have to come and spew up their trauma over and over again.”
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