Rent Control Actions at PC MPP Offices in 9 Ontario Cities

On February 20th, 2024, the Ontario Legislature met for the first time since December 6th when Doug Ford let MPPs go home early for the holidays. This meant that no new legislation had been discussed or debated in ELEVEN weeks. In response, Ontario ACORN members welcomed MPPs back to work with actions at 9 PC MPP constituency offices to demand FULL rent control, a ban on AGIs and LTB reform.

Ontario ACORN Demands:

• FULL rent control – this means applying rent control to ALL buildings and introducing vacancy control
• Ban AGIs (Above-the-Guideline-Increases in rent) that circumvent existing rent control measures
• LTB reform as the Landlord and Tenant Board has become an eviction factory that privileges landlord applications over tenants’ rights

Click here for more information on ACORN’s provincial housing campaigns.

Let’s keep the fight going! Sign/share the online action to send a message to Doug Ford, the Housing Minister and your MPP. To take action, click here.

Toronto

25 ACORN members marched down to MPP Michael Ford’s office, who notoriously had his office closed to constituents from the beginning of his tenure. This time we hit Weston, where the above-guideline rent increase epidemic has been cropping up, opening the can of worms of Landlord Tenant Board issues.

We gathered together for an hour-long speakout where members took the megaphone and expressed their anger, frustration and experiences with above-guideline rent increases, landlord tenant board issues, and general tenant precariousness. Former NDP MPP Faisal Hassan also joined in support!

We then marched down to the office of Mike Ford, delivering a letter to his office coupled with personal anecdotes of tenant experiences with AGIs and changes they want to see with the “Get it Done Act” — in other words, in other words actually getting full rent control done. CBC and Seneca Collage covered the action.

Hamilton

Hamilton ACORN members gathered at the office of Hamilton East-Stoney Creek MPP Neil Lumsden where admin staff had locked up the office and left when they saw us gathering! SHAME! We kept the action going and got some excellent passersby support, and left MPP Lumsden a letter on his office front door demanding full rent control, reform for the LTB, and a ban on AGIs!

London/St Thomas

Over a dozen ACORN members took a road trip down to MPP and Associate Housing Minister Rob Flack’s office in St Thomas today. The group quietly snuck up to Flack’s office to make sure they didn’t know what was coming, before flooding in together to demand a meeting with the MPP to discuss ACORN’s demands. After successfully securing a meeting with Flack in early March, members came back outside and petitioned the surrounding area – collecting well over 80 signatures in support of full rent control! London Free Press followed along to catch the action.

Ottawa

15 Ottawa ACORN members came out in full support to hand deliver a letter of demands for full rent control, LTB reform, and a ban on AGI’s to PC MPP Lisa MacLeod’s office in Nepean. We met outside her office where members gave testimonials on the impact of AGI’s, petitioned folks in support of our demands, and then marched to the building where 3 ACORN members slipped the letter of demands under her door (after the MPP conveniently shut down the office for the day). Leaders went back out and had a phone blitz where members all pulled out their phones and started calling to demand a meeting!

Peel

Peel ACORN members went to the office of MPP Natalia Kusendova-Bashta today. We were stalled many times to enter the building but finally members made it to the MPP office and had a meeting with the staff who alleges the MPP is on the side of the tenants. ACORN members won’t be convinced though until they see real change! Members concluded the action outside with chants.

Niagara

A small but mighty crowd of ACORN members and allies gathered at MPP Sam Oosterhoff’s constituency office in Beamsville to deliver ACORN Ontario’s demands for full rent control to address the housing affordability crisis in Ontario. We were able to get into his office to leave the letter with an administrator and demanded to set up a meeting with Oosterhoff to discuss the impact of AGIs on tenants! Oosterhoff’s staff indicated a desire to meet with ACORN to discuss our demands on his behalf, so ACORN will be holding Oosterhoff to it!

Brantford

6 ACORN members and community allies came out to Brantford-Brant MPP Will Bouma’s office to demand full rent control and were greeted with a locked door! We called Bouma’s office to flood his voicemail with demands for a meeting and held our action in front of the office regardless, and got a lot of community support!

Peterborough

Members delivered a demand letter earlier today to MPP Dave Smith’s office – Peterborough ACORN’s first action! After delivering the demand letter that was received by the MPP’s constituency staff, members petitioned on the street and gathered a lot of support from passersby.

Waterloo Region

ACORN members gathered outside MPP Mike Harris’ office to deliver a demand letter, only to be met with a closed office (SHAME!). After attempting to call Mike’s office with no answer, members taped up a demand letter to the door and flyered the surrounding area to spread awareness of ACORN’s housing demands!