Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 1996
by Randall Denley
Tenants unhappy with Tuesday's announcement of the gradual elimination of rent controls will be interested to know that the group that speaks on their behalf has a plan to help - a tax on tenants.
The Federation of Ottawa-Carleton Tenants Associations is lobbying the regional government to collect a tax on its behalf that would affect all tenants in privately owned buildings with more than six units.
The goal is the preservation of the federation, so it can do a better job of speaking on behalf of downtrodden renters. The group received two-thirds of its $112,000 budget from the provincial government, but it has been cut off. The federation laid off two of its three staff this week.
Executive director Dan McIntyre estimates the tax could bring the association about $500,000 a year.
Now you might ask why a tenant advocacy group needs to quadruple its budget.
"We've never had enough resources to do what we feel is necessary," McIntyre says. His organization wants to reach out to minority communities and francophones, investigate inadequate maintenance or unlawful practices by landlords, even speak up for tenants of public housing, who won't be asked to pay the tax.
Having I been calling this a tax? Excuse me, actually its'a a levy. The tenants group explains the difference in a letter to regional councillors.
"Isn't this really a tax?" the letter asks, just in case you might have had your suspicions. "No. It is a fee or levy to be used in the community by tenants. It is not revenue for the purpose of government. It will be part of the rent payment made by tenants. It is similar to the funciton of the RMOC to collect monies for the use of water."
Except that tenants won't be able to turn off the tap, if McIntyre's plan goes through. The tenant tax, sorry, levy, would be more like union dues, coerced membership in an organization.
Tenants groups have asked the province to collect their fees for them, but they've been turned down. Not even the former NDP government wanted to touch the idea. Now it's the region's turn.
"We're suggesting to the region that they show some leadership on this," McIntyre says.
Regional Councillor Diane Holmes is receptive to the tenant group's plan but thinks the amount is a bit high. She generally supports the idea of groups' costs being covered by members rather than government. The tenants association still gets $28,500 in grants from Ottawa.
Before anything goes ahead, there will need to be public meetings and reaction from tenants and landlords, she says.
Regional Chair Peter Clark is distinctly unimpressed.
"I don't believe it's part of our mandate to be a collection agency for special-interest groups," he says.
Landlords would collect the $1 per month per unit, either from existing rents or by raising the rent $1. Then money would then go to the region with the landlord's tax payments. McIntyre proposes that any regional costs come from the money collected so there would be no burden on taxpayers.
Landlords will oppose the plan, says Valerie Wiseman of the Ottawa Region Landlords Association. The tenants are asking for a tax on landlords, she says, because the money will come from existing rent or foregone rents.
The tenants federation itself is not without merit. It is useful to have someone to help tenants who lack the means to resolve disputes themselves. A tenant group also acts as a counter weight to landlords' own organizations.
The difficulty lies in obliging people to fund an organization to speak on their behalf, whether they want help or not. As a comparison, the Canadian Automobile Association is an effective consumer and advocacy group, but I wouldn't want to be forced to join it.
One wonders why tenants can't organize a door-knocking campaign to collect a modest membership fee, if they feel the organization is really useful.
It's not as easy or as lucrative for the tenants federation to pay its way by selling memberships, but it does make an organization focus on providing tangible service to members.
It's hard to say how much value there is in having a local organization to criticize the province's housing policies. Safe to say it's a bit less than $500,000.
Typists notes:
Dan McIntyre is now the Executive Director of the (Toronto) Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations. Confirmation of his position can be found at the following web site as posted by him $1 per month levy on all tenants from his former Ottawa tenant group
Similarly, Barbara Hurd, the homeowner who has been the Chair of the Federation of Metro Tenants' Associations for some years, also had another organization from 1991 onwards (4 years after the demise of the original Tenant Hotline, of which she was the president). That group was called the United Tenants of Ontario (UTOO). You can see from the UTOO documents Page 1, Page 2, and Page 3, that she was listed as the "head office" address for that organization and that only one other person was listed on the incorporation papers for that "group".
In April 1995, UTOO released a survey done by Environics Research Group Limited, and paid for by a grant from the Ontario government. The report was called "Attitudes of renters toward tenants' organizations and public housing".
The reports introduction read:
" Environics Research Group Limited is pleased to present this report to the United Tenants of Ontario (UTOO) regarding the attitudes of tenants across Ontario toward various issues, including willingness to contribute toward a province-wide tenants' organization."
On page 13 of this report was the survey question:
"One way to raise money for tenants' groups would be to have the Ontario government collect from landlords a dollar a month for each of their rental units. This money, which tenants would pay with their rent, would be paid to a central fund for tenant groups. How would you feel about this or similar legislation?"
It seems that these people still believe that government's should be collecting money from the public for their groups whether or not the people want to contribute or be part of their group. Just look at the letter (link here) reprinted with permission from the May 10/June 2, 2001 issue of the Toronto Free Press.
It sure appears like these people spend an inordinate amount of time, using government funding, on working on ways to get even more government funding for themselves, instead of using this public money for things that would actually benefit tenants.
Go back to the Federation of Metro Tenants Associations Story
