Councillors vote to keep landlords' names, contact info off public database
CBC
A move by two city councilllors that would have made it easier for the public to access contact information for rental property owners was voted down in committee Tuesday.
Councillors Sam Trosow and David Ferreira backed a motion that would have asked staff to look into the possibility of making names and contact information for rental licence holders publicly available on the city's website. Existing rules already require the name and contact information of the licence holder to be posted inside of a rental property, near the front entrance, where it can be seen by tenants.
Trosow said putting the licence holder's name and contact information online would allow neighbours to contact a property owner directly if there was a problem.
"All I want to do is make it easy for our residents to understand what's going on on their block so they can better live there in harmony and have better communication with their neighbours," said Trosow.
Members of the public can already access property ownership information, though it isn't always easy.
In the lobby of City Hall, there is a publicly-accessible computer terminal with a database that can be searched by address. A search will show the name attached to the property tax records of an address, but sometimes in the case of a rental property, only a company name or numbered company is listed.
Also, the database is maintained by the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation, not the city. The database also only allows addresses to be searched, not names.
Contact information, such as phone numbers or email addresses, are not included in the database. The information can only be accessed by an in-person visit to city hall.
Trosow said the city should make it easier for members of the public to reach out to rental property owners.
"[The status quo] creates a situation where the city is protecting the anonymity of the identity of property owners, and there's no reason in the privacy laws that has to happen," he said.
The matter was up for discussion because last August, council asked staff to report back whether or not make more information about the rental licence available to the public.
The report said it's not common practice for municipalities to make property owner contact information publicly available.
The report said it could lead to problems if members of the public area able to contact landlords directly.
"Civic administration is of the view that the city should not encourage the public to take on enforcement of the city’s by-laws," the report says.
Five months ago, Dr. Anne Herdman Royal began a new job in Canada. Driven out of the United States by a shifting political landscape and a mass shooting at the hospital where she worked in Tulsa, Okla., it had become a country she no longer wanted to call home.
Alberta's government — along with the Rural Municipalities of Alberta, and the province’s energy regulator — say they want to crack down on oil and gas companies that don’t pay their property taxes.
Ottawa will now allow rural businesses to employ more temporary foreign workers to help supplement the local workforce, a move Restaurants Canada says will help some restaurants on P.E.I. keep their doors open.
The City of Calgary is reminding people to save water after a recent spike in usage.
The number of visitors to food banks in Mississauga has nearly doubled since the height of the pandemic, says the city's largest food security organization.
After three weeks on the road in Yellowknife doing Inuvialuktun translation for the Northwest Territories legislative assembly, Lillian Elias says she's tired and ready to go home to Inuvik.
Metrolinx is reporting "significant" delays to several GO train lines late Monday afternoon due to a police investigation.
The federal government is spending $14.3 million to support over two dozen Yukon organizations and First Nations governments with arts, culture and language programming.
The war in the Middle East, the fear that it could escalate and the economic consequences were top of mind as Prime Minister Mark Carney met his British counterpart Monday in the United Kingdom at the tail of a whirlwind trip to Europe.
Alberta and Czechia will host the fourth edition of the World Cup of Hockey, a country-versus-country hockey tournament set to hit the ice in February 2028, the NHL announced Monday.
The Ontario government has confirmed it is cutting provincial funding for seven supervised drug consumption sites, days after harm reduction advocates said they were notified of the decision.
In the sprawling labyrinth of shops and showrooms in the Chinese city of Yiwu, parts of what’s widely known as the "world’s supermarket" are beginning to look more like a world-class warehouse.
The lawyer representing Umar Zameer, a man cleared in the death of a Toronto police officer two years ago, says he has "serious misgivings" about an upcoming report into the conduct of several officers involved in the case.