About 100 people filled the committee room at city hall on Wednesday as council\u2019s planning and housing committee considered the proposal, which will still need to pass a final vote at council later this month. Only Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo dissented at committee.<\/p>\n
That included tenants like James Adair, who said he faced a renoviction this year for work that amounted to a fresh coat of paint, new flooring and updated appliances.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe story of my building is not unique,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople are forced out of their communities that they live in, and out of their homes, forcing people to scramble to find a new place to live, to make their new budgets work with higher rents and unfortunately sometimes forcing people to couch surf, use our shelter system or out on the streets.\u201d<\/p>\n
Several speakers were members of tenant advocacy group ACORN, including Sharon Katz, who said the bylaw isn\u2019t nearly as strong as what other cities have done.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are urging committee members to strengthen this watered-down proposal and pass a bylaw with real teeth,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
[Renovictions are] forcing people to couch surf, use our shelter system or out on the streets.- James Adair<\/p>\n
Ottawa\u2019s proposed bylaw would require landlords to seek a city licence within a week of issuing an eviction notice for renovations. To get that licence, they would have to show they obtained a building permit prior to giving notice to the tenant.<\/p>\n
Landlords would also have to provide tenants an education package informing them of their rights. For example, tenants are entitled to return to the unit at the same rent once the renovations are complete.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Kaite Burkholder Harris of the Alliance to End Homelessness urged councillors to pass the bylaw. But she said it includes loopholes and doesn\u2019t do enough to support tenants pushed out of their units.<\/p>\n
\u201cDisplaced tenants are forced into a rental market where affordable housing is simply out of reach,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Aileen Leo of The Ottawa Mission said some of those renovicted tenants end up in emergency shelters.<\/p>\n
Unlike anti-renoviction bylaws in cities like Hamilton or Toronto, Ottawa\u2019s proposal would not force landlords to provide additional compensation, pay moving expenses or offer alternative accommodation to tenants beyond the one-to-three months rent of compensation that provincial rules already require.<\/p>\n
It also doesn\u2019t require landlords to get a report from a qualified person like an engineer or architect to prove an eviction is really needed to do the work, as many similar bylaws do.<\/p>\n
Sarah Sproule of Community Legal Services of Ottawa asked councillors to do more.<\/p>\n
\u201cA requirement for a landlord to provide financial support for a tenant to temporarily move would ensure that a tenant could relocate without ending up on the street and it would also deter landlords from dragging out repairs to deter tenants from returning,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Landlords worry about paperwork and delays<\/p>\n
But real estate and landlord groups say the bylaw isn\u2019t needed at all and will simply add another layer of bureaucracy over existing provincial rules.<\/p>\n
Tami Eades of the Ottawa Real Estate Board said it could mean added costs and complexity for landlords, hindering efforts to improve the quality of the city\u2019s rental stock.<\/p>\n
Somerset ward Coun. Ariel Troster, who has long called for an anti-renoviction bylaw, pushed back against that argument. She said there would be no fee for landlords to apply for the licence.<\/p>\n
But Ciana Canci, who described herself as a small housing provider in Ottawa, said the additional costs come from delays in getting the building permit that the licensing process would require. <\/p>\n
City staff said issuing building permits is currently taking about 15 business days, sometimes more.<\/p>\n
When governments put their fingers all over how the market works, you tend to do well-intended things that raise costs.- John Dickie, Eastern Ontario Landlords Association<\/p>\n
\u201cAdding delays, costs and complexities to an already slow and costly process only makes housing more expensive for tomorrow\u2019s renters,\u201d said Canci, who argued that the provincial process under the Residential Tenancies Act is already enough to protect tenants.<\/p>\n
John Dickie, chair of the Eastern Ontario Landlords Association, said the proposed bylaw will mean more paperwork that will ultimately defeat the very goal of the bylaw.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen governments put their fingers all over how the market works, you tend to do well-intended things that raise costs. That tends to reduce supply and that tends to increase prices of rents, and that tends to hurt poor people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Most councillors on the committee felt differently, with College ward Coun. Laine Johnson calling the proposed bylaw a \u201cfocused, narrow, reasonable approach.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt acknowledges there is a problem, but I don\u2019t think it is overreacting to it or creating an overly onerous regulatory framework,\u201d said Orl\u00e9ans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts.<\/p>\n
Appetite for more<\/p>\n
Troster called the bylaw a first step, but an important one.<\/p>\n
“It means that\u00a0we\u2019re going to be calling the bluff of bad actors who might be evicting people just to jack up their rents and paint the walls,” she said. “If you\u2019re doing a renovation that\u2019s significant enough to require a permit, then all you need to do is show your permit before you evict.”<\/p>\n
But she also acknowledged the shortcomings, saying “the best bylaw is the one you can win, and this is the one we won.”<\/p>\n
Even so, she put forward a motion she hopes will eventually strengthen the bylaw. It asks staff to review the bylaw and bring forward a report late next year that would take a look at adding requirements for compensation or temporary accommodations and a qualified persons report.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re elements that are in every other renoviction bylaw across the country,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re the only jurisdiction that is not implementing those items.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"city](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/1783539430_967_default.jpg\")
Somerset Coun. Ariel Troster has been the leading voice on council supporting the anti-renoviction bylaw, which she has been pushing since 2024. (Mathieu Deroy\/CBC)<\/p>\n
The motion also passed, with only Kitts and Kanata North Coun. Cathy Curry voting against it.<\/p>\n
Dickie called it a “slippery slope” that could lead to more costs for landlords.<\/p>\n
City staff had initially held back on bringing forward the bylaw, saying it would cover similar territory as recent provincial changes that require tenants to update tenants when renovation work is complete and give them 60 days to return, while doubling fines for violations.<\/p>\n
But the province hasn\u2019t yet given a timeline for when it will implement other proposed changes to strengthen tenant protections, like requiring a qualified person\u2019s report.<\/p>\n
If the bylaw passes at council on July 15, it would come into force on Jan. 1, 2027.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A City of Ottawa committee has voted for an anti-renovictions bylaw that tenant advocates call toothless and landlord…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":788886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-789387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789387","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789387"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789387\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/788886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789387"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789387"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789387"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}