Community Event

Hello CUPE friends,

I want to bring to your attention an issue that I believe would be of interest to our membership. Currently, the Doug Ford government is forcing through Bill 60, without consultation or public hearings, that attacks tenant rights.

Many of our members (and I am thinking especially of our grad student members) may be among Ontario’s more than 1.7 million renters and their families (~38% of population). In 2018 Ford lifted rent control on any new construction and promised they would not touch rent control; Now, however, they refuse to promise to protect rent control and have floated proposals that would effectively end rent control in Ontario. The government has back pedaled on their most controversial proposal to end month-to-month tenancies, but it is still necessary to keep up pressure as we know they are unreliable at best. Measures remaining in the bill will still make it easier and faster for landlords to evict tenants and limit tenant rights in fighting back.

Housing is a particularly critical issue in our region. As of September, the region had 1,264 people known by name who were experiencing houselessness. As of last January, there were more than 80,000 houseless people in Ontario, which is expected to at least double in the next decade.

Student rent is already exorbitant– I have heard from students they are paying $600 or more for a room in a house, and as a young population perhaps inexperienced with renting, they may be more susceptible to maltreatment by landlords. I don’t have stats for this, just what I have heard from students while teaching.

I have [included] a flyer provided by ACORN Hamilton, a tenants’ rights advocacy group, that outlines the changes Ford is attempting. These can also be found on the ACORN website at https://acorncanada.org/campaigns/housing-tenant-unions/.

Members concerned about this attack on tenants’ rights and the risk to rent control are encouraged to:

1. Sign the petition at ACORN, which will also send emails to the relevant politicians https://acorncanada.org/take_action/urgent-message-to-doug-ford-dont-end-rent-control/
2. Email Premier Doug Ford  doug.fordco@pc.ola.org or web form at https://correspondence.premier.gov.on.ca/EN/feedback/default.aspx or premier@ontario.ca (I think? An email address is hard to find for him. He can also be called or texted.)
3. Email the Attorney General Doug Downey doug.downey@pc.ola.org
4. Email the Housing Minister Rob Flack rob.flack@pc.ola.org
5. Share your renting stories with NDP housing critic Catherine McKenney cmckenney-co@ndp.on.ca
6. Email local MPPs
   1. Jenny Stevens, NDP (St. Catharines) jstevens-qp@ndp.on.ca
   2. Wayne Gates, NDP (Niagara Falls) wgates-qp@ndp.on.ca 
   3. Jeff Burch, NDP (Niagara Centre) jburch-co@ndp.on.ca
   4. Sam Oosterhoff, PC (Niagara West) sam.oosterhoff@pc.ola.org
   5. Other MPPs can be found here as needed: https://www.ola.org/en/members 
7. Email local mayors and councilors to encourage them to push back, as we live with the results of houselessness on our streets and in our classrooms. https://www.niagararegion.ca/government/council/profiles/default.aspx
8. Talk to friends, coworkers, neighbours to spread awareness.

Since the government has been busy trying to privatize water and sewage, removing bike lanes, cutting green roofing, cutting transit, spending millions on a tunnel study, spending millions on Ronald Regan ads, getting rid of school boards (and probably a few other things I have forgotten already), this issue has flown under many folks’ radar. I hope the union can help bring this critical issue to members’ attention and encourage them to sign the ACORN petition. 

Thank you,

A Concerned CUPE 4207 Member