(2022, November 2). Ford housing bill a ‘devastating attack’ on renters: NDP. CBC News.

Ontario’s official opposition is asking the province to scrap part of its new housing plan because, the NDP says, it will weaken tenant protections and further deplete the stock of affordable rental properties.

NDP housing critic Jessica Bell said a proposal in Ontario’s new housing plan would allow the province to curb the powers of municipal rental replacement bylaws. Those rules protect tenants in the event of the demolition of their rental unit. The bylaws, which exist in Toronto and Mississauga, mean developers must offer tenants financial assistance and the right to return to a replacement unit in the new building. 

Patricia Johnston, who also spoke at the press conference, lives in a Toronto apartment complex that is currently the subject of re-development negotiations between the city and a builder. She’s lived in the building for 17 years and said the government proposal could leave her homeless.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ford-rental-bylaw-changes-1.6637865

(2022, October 30). A brief history of early apartment buildings in Toronto. BlogTO.

The emergence of purpose-built apartment buildings within Toronto was due to both their development and proliferation in other North American cities, as well as due to a rapid increase in the population of Toronto within the first decades of the 20th century that outpaced the availability of single-family dwellings.

Bylaw 6061 was altered in 1941 on the advice of the City Solicitor who considered it “was illegal for the Council to authorize violations of residential bylaws by passing amending by-laws, if such action was taken for the benefit of private individuals, and not in the general public interest.”

Dennis (1989) further discerns that post-1941 the practice continued but “whole blocks or streets, rather than individual lots, were specified whenever an exemption was made.”

https://www.blogto.com/city/2022/10/history-early-apartment-buildings-toronto/

(2022, August 19). DEVELOPINGS: Developments on your doorstep. Gleaner Community Press.

145 St. George St: This project submitted by TenBlock proposes to demolish a viable 12 storey mid-century mid-rise building displacing all residents in 130 rental units currently residing in the building.

Demolition of a viable building is a growing concern across Toronto.

Implicit in the application is that replacement of the existing building with an incompatible 29-storey structure is warranted because it is economically a ‘higher and best use’ that will generate profits for the developer but give back nothing to the community and our commons.

http://gleanernews.ca/index.php/2022/08/19/developings-developments-on-your-doorstep-aug-2022/