city of ottawa renoviction bylaw study given go-ahead with a caveat
4 minute read
somerset ward coun. ariel troster.
tony caldwell
/
postmedia
ottawa will go ahead with a study of how it can develop bylaw to stop renovictions, but not before it gives the province a chance to enact its own laws to protect tenants rights.
the motion approved 19-6 by council at its jan. 22 meeting, is an amended version of a motion presented earlier this month to the planning and housing committee by somerset ward coun. ariel troster. landlord-tenant law is a provincial responsibility, and troster’s amended motion gives the province time to respond while also allowing for the likelihood of a snap ontario election.
the city will write to premier doug ford to find out the ontario government’s intentions. the province’s residential tenancies act was passed in 2023, but has never been enacted. if there is no response by april 1, the city will begin its study and report back to council a year from now.
the city of hamilton was the first in ontario to enact a renoviction bylaw, but that bylaw is new and untested in court.
“i know some folks want it to go faster, but staff really wants to have good data,” troster said after wednesday’s meeting. “if we’re going to set up a another regulation regime that requires us to hire staff, it would be quite expensive. the cost-benefit analysis has to be there.”
a tenant is “renovicted” when they are issued an eviction notice by a landlord, ostensibly so the unit can be significantly renovated. but the city says “bad actors” do unnecessary renovations, then discourage tenants from returning just so they can rent out the apartments to new tenants at higher costs. the city is then left shouldering the cost to care for the unhoused individuals.
“we had a good consensus at planning and housing committee that we thought it was still worth it for staff to do a bylaw review on the issue of renovictions. not only does it create a lot of human misery, unnecessarily, but it also costs the city a lot of money,” troster said.
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“after discussion with other councillors and the mayor, we added a few changes to account for the potential of a provincial election. we’re not being prescriptive of what the scope of work is. if the province takes action, which is what we all want them to do, then that would change what we would need to do as a city to protect tenants.”
task force to target housing construction delays
the city wants to establish a new task force to see how it can cut red tape and speed up the process of house building. between january 2023 and september 2024, the city approved more than 50,000 new housing units, but only 8,300 of those units have been issued building permits, mayor mark sutcliffe said.
“this is a challenging area and there’s all kinds of regulations and previous decisions of council to ensure that all steps are followed in the approval process and guidelines to be followed for getting a home approved in ottawa,” the mayor said. “staff have been doing everything they can to streamline that process. there’s been a lot of work already done to eliminate silos and to eliminate people being bounced from department to department. but there’s always more that we can do.”
ottawa has a goal of building 15,000 new homes a year, but fell short of that mark last year and will likely miss again in 2025. rapid changes in provincial legislation and federal funding programs have left municipalities scrambling to keep up.
“given that the number of homes we need to build based on a growing population is significant and given that going forward we may see pressures and incentives and penalties from other levels of government for infrastructure funding and other resources — we need to be ready for that,” sutcliffe said.
“we want to have a process that allows people to propose solutions, we choose the best ones and innovate.”
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from receptions centre to pickleball?
news that land near the nepean sportsplex will be used for a reception centre for newcomers to ottawa has upset many residents in knoxdale-merivale ward, but the structure may eventually be put to community use.
coun. sean devine is proposing that, when the structure is no longer needed for newcomers, it be considered for recreational purposes — “e.g. pickleball courts, basketball courts, art studios, etc.”, according to devine’s notice of motion presented wednesday.
the structure at 1645 woodroffe ave. will be a pre-fab building, complete with heating, plumbing and air-conditioning systems and has a potential lifespan of 25 years.
“the proposed development of a pre-fabricated building structure offers a unique opportunity to integrate a multi-purpose facility that can be easily reconfigured and repurposed to support community and/or recreational activities once its initial use as a newcomer reception centre is concluded,” the motion said.
the local community would be consulted before any change was made.
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