Press Hits

Hamilton tenant advocates are among those calling for renters to have a say in the next iteration of Canada’s expiring National Housing Strategy, arguing the ongoing affordability crunch affects them the most.

Members of Hamilton ACORN briefly met with Liberal MP Aslam Rana outside his downtown office Thursday to deliver a letter urging Prime Minister Mark Carney and Housing Minister Gregor Robertson to ensure tenants aren’t left out.

“As of right now, there’s no indication that they’re going to be involving tenants in the process,” Amanda Dick told The Spectator before she and her peers spoke to Rana.

But consultation with tenants on the next version of the $115-billion-plus National Housing Strategy is crucial, she said, “because this will disproportionately affect tenants, who are already in dire straits.”

Nearly 8,000 applications that were denied for a home heating rebate this past winter would have met the criteria in years gone by, a CBC News analysis has found.

Advocates say the situation shows Nova Scotians are struggling with the high cost of living and the government is not responding adequately. But the province says it gave what it could to the province’s most vulnerable.

Data about the Heating Assistance Rebate Program (HARP) shows 7,988 applications submitted for the 2025-26 season were disqualified based on income, but would have qualified if not for a cut to the program’s eligibility.

Last year the province reduced income thresholds for HARP by 40 to 45 per cent. It also reduced the value of the rebate by more than 30 per cent.

An aging north London apartment complex where tenants recently went four weeks without hot water was converted from rental apartments to condos in 2021 and marketed to investors.

The ownership structure, one real estate expert says, can become problematic when older apartment buildings are converted to condos, particularly when maintenance and repair costs rise.

“Once they are condominiumized, after a few years the underlying problems start to rear their heads and you are faced with major repairs,” said Ron Butler, a mortgage broker who discusses the condo market on his Angry Mortgage Podcast.

A new rebate program aimed at helping residential landlords upgrade their properties could end up proving costly for tenants, according to a housing advocate.

In July, NB Power launched the Rental Owners Rebate Program, which provides financial incentives to residential rental property owners for completing energy efficient upgrades like the installation of heat pump water heaters and attic insulation.

The program has been billed by NB Power as a win-win for landlords, who can expect more marketable properties, and for tenants, who can expect lower power bills, thanks to the upgrades.

“Our stance is that it appears beneficial as long as the costs are not transferred to tenants, so this is what remains uncertain right now,” said Nichola Taylor, chair of NB ACORN, which advocates on behalf of tenants in the province.

Since a heat wave hit mainland Nova Scotia last week, Miriam Williams and her husband have been running six box fans in their highrise apartment, hoping some airflow would help ease the feels-like temperature of 40 C.

“There’s very, very, very little that we could do about it,” she said. “It was unbearable.”

In July, Williams joined tenant advocacy group ACORN’s protesters at the Halifax Common splash pad in a nationwide rally urging government action to tackle growing extreme heat risks. While regional demands vary, they all focus on indoor temperature caps for rentals and cooling subsidies.

Williams said while healthy youth can likely endure the heat, she can’t imagine how vulnerable people are coping.

“My thought really went to all the kids and the elderly folks in our building who are very much in the exact same situation where they’re struggling like this,” she said.

As Ottawa sweats through an unusually humid summer, a renter advocacy group is mobilizing to secure air conditioning units for its members through an undersubscribed city program—but has been concerned that more efficient heat pumps are priced out of reach for now.

In July, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN)-Ottawa and allies won $100,000 in municipal budget for a pilot program that will provide 200 AC units to low-income tenants, the group wrote in a Facebook post. The units are available for low-income earners who are seniors, or have a medical condition that would be helped by cooling.

“We know this is just a drop in the bucket!” ACORN said at the time, adding that it would be demanding a province-wide air conditioning program next.

But as ACORN helps address an urgent health and safety issue this summer by connecting eligible residents with the AC program, better, more efficient technologies remain out of reach.