Posted in Above Guideline increase, Building Maintenance, Capital Expenditures, Conservation, Electricity, Energy Conservation, Environment, Greening, Hydro, Infrastructure, Lease Agreement, Politics, Retrofit, Smart meters, Sub-meters, Utilities, tagged Building Maintenance, Capital Expenditures, Electricity, Energy Conservation, Environment, Politics, Retrofit, Sub-meters, Utilities on September 8, 2009| 3 Comments »
By I. Aagaard, Guest Contributor
A recent article (Smart sub-meters) on the EYTG web site made references to an issue that’s been popping up recently: Smart Sub-Meters in apartment buildings.
I agree fundamentally with the notion of this “Pay Per Use” way of holding each of us responsible for our consumption of non-renewable resources, such as electricity. (more…)
Posted in Activism, Affordable housing, Bailout, Canada's Housing Policy, Environment, Home ownership, Politics, Seniors, Seniors housing, Tax breaks, tagged Affordable housing, Bailout, Canada's Housing Policy, Economy, Granny Flats, Home ownership, Politics, Seniors housing, Sustainable affordability on March 15, 2009| 5 Comments »
By I. Aagaard, Guest Contributor
Hi there:
I’m back! Me, with the previous Sustainable Affordability and MISSING: National Housing policy in Federal Elections! contributions. This time I’m here with a suggestion: That tenants collectively approach Ottawa and Queen’s Park for financial help so that we, too, can do our part in saving or creating jobs during these tough times. After all, if GM and Chrysler, to name a few, can get help from Messrs. Harper and McGuinty, then why can’t we?
Think about it! If our respective governments are prepared to help bail out big companies that are poster boys for a capitalist society, then (more…)
Posted in Activism, Landlord licensing, Politics, Toronto City Council, tagged Landlord licensing, Politics, Toronto City Council on November 10, 2008| Leave a Comment »
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 (more…)
Posted in Activism, Politics, Queen's Park, Rent Control, Residential Tenancies Act, Toronto City Council, Vacancy Decontrol, tagged Dalton McGuinty, Frances Nunziata, Ontario, Politics, Provincial government, Rent Control, Toronto City Council, Vacancy Decontrol on September 11, 2008| Leave a Comment »
In mid-July of this year the City Council voted to refer a motion (initiated by Ward 22 – St. Paul’s Michael Walker and seconded by Ward 11- South Weston’s Frances Nunziata) to Toronto’s Executive Council to request that the Provincial Government support a return to what they termed ‘real’ Rent Control and the end of Vacancy Decontrol in the province.
In and of itself, the Council motion was not very meaningful and does not seem to have been picked up by the media. It did certainly raised concerns though that are important to us as tenants.
So, what were the Councillors supporting and what impact would the (more…)
Posted in Activism, Apartment Issues, History, Politics, Protests, Queen's Park, Rent Control, tagged History, landlords, Ontario, Politics, Protests, Queen's Park, Rent Control on September 8, 2008| Leave a Comment »
https://eastyorktenantsgroup.wordpress.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=249&action=edit
Many of us who live in larger buildings know how hard it can be to get a hold of the actual landlord. Often there are layers of property management staff between tenants and the owners of buildings.
With that in mind, I found this 1991 article that describes a rowdy protest at Queen’s Park against rent control by (gasp!) actual landlords joined by construction contractors interesting.
Note the inventive protest techniques – maybe we can learn from them (LOL).
Rent-control protest went over the top
Ottawa Citizen – November 22, 1991
by Jim CoyleToronto — Housing Minister Evelyn Gigantes has seldom sounded so eloquent, rarely seemed so reasonable, probably never made her case so well.
And she didn’t say a word.
She couldn’t. The band of slavering landlords, construction workers and contractors who showed up Thursday at Queen’s (more…)
East York Tenants Group 