From: http://www.carleton.ca/ctown/archiv/old/Mar2798.html

Centretown News, March 27, 1998

By Jeff Meerman

A local tenants' rights group will close unless it receives funding from the region or the city. "These aren't the best of times," says Dan McIntyre, president and sole remaining employee of the Federation of Ottawa-Carleton Tenants' Associations. "The federation is on very shaky ground."

Now it will no longer receive $74,000 from the provincial government and the region just rejected its funding request.

The federation had to lay off two full-time workers two years ago and scale down services.

The group helps about 4,000 renters a year take on their landlords and lobby the government for lower rent.

The last hope for the federation is more funding from the City of Ottawa which already provides $28,000 to $30,000 annually.

Even if the federation gets the money, McIntyre says he needs $48,000 to keep it afloat.

City Councillor Elisabeth Arnold says Ottawa has to cut its budget again this year. That means there probably won't be any more money for the federation.

"Everything is up for grabs," says Arnold. "It's one more example of where the Harris government's policies are hurting the people that are most vulnerable. Once you destroy an organization, it's difficult to rebuild it in the future."

Marni Cappe, head of Ottawa-Carleton's policy branch, says the region will pay for social-housing programs, like low-cost housing and rent supplements, not funded by the province. However, the region considers the federation an interest group so it can't get funding from the social-housing budget.

Cappe says the group will have to apply for a separate grant, which it has already done and been rejected.

The province of Ontario is refusing to pay for social programs it once did leaving the municipalities to pick up the tab. As a result, organizations like the Tenants' Federation are being left out in the cold.

But whatever happens, McIntyre is leaving the federation for good.

The 48-year-old president says he can't afford to live off his $35,000 salary anymore because he wants to save some money for retirement.

McIntyre says he would have stayed on as president of the federation, but he's disillusioned by the government cuts that are forcing his organization into extinction.

According to Fred Gloger who had at one time been on the Board of the Federation of Ottawa-Carleton Tenants Associations, without board approval, Mr. McIntyre, stopped paying the rent on the group's office, and forwarded without permission their office telephone to a new one for his new business, Dan McIntyre and Associates, and forwarded their website to a one for his newly formed Ottawa tenant paralegal business.

This is confirmed with the last known page of the Federation of Ottawa-Carleton Tenants Assocations, which alas no longer exists where Dan McIntyre had all the tenant information removed and replaced by a link to his paralegal site for Dan McIntyre and Associates, see Dan McIntyre and Associates.

One interesting thing we saved from that site is a page which did not seem to be linked to the rest of the site, text below;

DOLLAR A MONTH CAMPAIGN

The Ontario Government is now looking at an idea that we have been talking about for over 10 years. The idea is to designate $1 of every rent cheque to tenant advocacy through organizations such as our Federation. This idea, when implemented, would result in a tenfold increase in funding for Tenant Organizations and would permit us to take a much stronger role in advocating for tenants throughout Ottawa-Carleton. This page can still be viewed at http://www.tenant.net/Other_Areas/Canada/carlton/dollar

Toronto Tenants Associations info

Go back to the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations Story