East York Tenants Group

So, today is the day that the Toronto’s Executive Committee will evaluate and vote on a proposal for a new Municipal Licensing and Standards strategy.

As noted in earlier posts, it looks as if they will approve an auditing plan proposed by the department.

From a tenant perspective (and examined in detail in earlier posts) this proposal is little more than a slightly enhanced version of the status quo.

In earlier posts, we mentioned a meeting that took place yesterday afternoon to show support for landlord licensing – the proposal initially being investigated by the City.

This meeting was well attended (with approximately 40 people present, albeit mostly members from the organizing group, ACORN) and drew a camera crew from Global TV and two newspaper reporters. Three city councillors (Anthony Perruzza of Ward 8, Janet Davis of Ward 31 and Paula Fletcher of Ward 30) came out to the gathering as well, ostensibly to show their support for tenants. ACORN leaders said that they had collected letters of support for landlord licensing from councillors Frances Nunziata of Ward 11, Pam McConnell of Ward 28 and Adam Vaughn of Ward 20.

The only councillor to speak, Janet Davis, spoke as if the implementation of the auditing plan were an inevitability.

She said, however, that councillors sympathetic to landlord licensing would try to examine the proposal closely and consider any helpful amendments at Monday’s meeting. When asked what tenants could do to ensure landlord licensing happens later on, if the auditing proposal were to pass, she said that we need to continue to speak up and let our councillors know that landlord licensing is important to us.

The meeting ended with the organizers urging folks to attend the Executive Committee meeting (Today-Monday, November 10th 1:30 discussion of housing oversight strategy at City Hall) so that the Committee is aware that tenants are following this issue.