The Planning and Housing Committee today directed City staff to begin work to develop a renovation licence and relocation by-law for Ottawa, commonly referred to as a renovictions by-law.
Through a motion, the Committee instructed staff to undertake a by-law review and to report back to the Committee by Q2 2026. That background work would examine feasibility, legality and practicality, and could inform a new by-law that would seek to prevent the eviction of a rental unit’s tenants under the pretext of upgrading the unit but undertaken, in fact, to increase rent.
The matter of addressing renovictions rests with the Province, which provides Ontarians with tenant protection by prohibiting illegal evictions and setting conditions when a legal eviction is required. The Government of Ontario recently made legislative changes to strengthen those tenant protections.
The motion stemmed from a City feasibility assessment related to developing the new by-law. The assessment outlines the significant funding and staff resources that would be needed to implement and enforce the by-law, including up to 15 new staff positions and annual costs between $1.8 and $2.2 million. To enable the by-law review to proceed, the Committee also approved adjustments to the 2023-2026 By-law Review Work Plan to free up staff capacity, and directed staff to identify any needed funding sources before Council meets to consider this matter on Wednesday, January 22.
The Committee also approved plans to enter into a front-ending agreement for the design and construction of a new signalized intersection on March Road. The intersection is proposed in the Kanata North Urban Expansion Area, which will be a community of approximately 3,000 dwellings with a vibrant, mixed-use core along March Road. It would be located at a planned new two-lane local road, called Buckbean Avenue. The proponents would build the intersection with left-turn and right-turn lanes, concrete sidewalks, crosswalks, cycle tracks and cross rides for a maximum of $2.6 million, plus taxes and indexing.
The Committee approved a zoning amendment to facilitate development of a 94-unit, four-storey apartment building and a semi-detached dwelling in Stittsville. A public road connecting Ravenscroft and Wildpine courts would be created, with the apartment building to the north and the semi-detached building to the south. The apartment building lands would be rezoned Residential Fourth Density to permit the low-rise apartment use, and the amendment would also reduce required parking for the apartment building. The semi-detached parcel would retain a Residential Third Density zoning, with reduced setbacks to account for irregular lot shape and to maximize separation from nearby homes.
A portion of the property contains natural heritage features, and the applicant will convey that block to the City for environmental preservation. Those lands would be zoned Parks and Open Space.
To help address the housing crisis, Council committed to providing home builders enough opportunities to build 151,000 quality market homes by 2031 – or 15,100 per year. If Council approves, the land-use permissions that the Committee recommended today will help put applicants in a position to build 96 new dwellings in Ottawa. Visit ottawa.ca/residentialdwellings for a graphic showing quarterly progress towards Ottawa’s housing pledge targets.
Recommendations from today’s meeting will rise to Council on Wednesday, January 22.