The "Auto-Evict" Petition has been Delivered. Now What?
As of early this morning, Feb. 29/24, the petition now has 21,014 signatures.
Earlier this morning I sent the Cover Letter and "Auto-Evict" petition to all 124 Ontario Members of Parliament (MPPs). All political parties were represented: 78 PC, 28 NDP, 9 LIB, 2 Green and 5 Independent. Included in that list was an email address for Premier Doug Ford. You were "cc:'d," per se.
Late last night I also sent the same cover letter and petition to the Office of the Premier through its standard website.
The Ministry of the Attorney General is responsible for the LTB and provides an email address for "Serving documents on the Crown in a civil case," to which I sent the same cover letter and petition.
I Can Coordinate and Help but You Need to Help Yourself
People in need can only be helped if they will help themselves. I can't do this alone.
If you want auto-eviction for proven non-payment of rent implemented at the LTB, you need to invest at least a bit of your time. You now know that at least 21,000 other housing providers feel the same way as you, and I suspect that there are tens of thousands more that haven't yet heard about the petition.
If you don't feel comfortable talking about the petition, I'm more than happy to speak with anyone -- politicians, media, bureaucrats, lawyers, even tenant advocates and their groups (but maybe with a bodyguard :>) ) -- but I need you to reach them and get their attention.
Contact Your MPP
Call your MPP and ask if they read the petition. If they claim they don't know about it then tell them it was sent to them on Feb. 29/24 around 7:00 a.m. Ask them when (not if) you can discuss it with them. If you wish, I can try to be present by speaker phone, which feature every mobile phone has today.
Contact the Media
There's no point in telling me to talk to the CBC, CTV, MP24 and all the others. Send me a specific email address for a specific person and I'll contact them. Better still, you send them the cover letter and petition. If you feel uncomfortable talking to them, you can then tell them to contact me.
Many of them publish a lot of pro-tenant articles because they believe that those are the eyeballs that read (and watch) their articles. Let them know that there are an estimated 522,000 housing providers in Ontario alone, and that we read too.
Post on Social Media
Post your (it's not my) petition and cover letter on forums and chat groups. Reddit, for example, is a huge network of online communities that organize themselves by their hobbies, interests, passions, etc. Someone found the petition only a couple of days after the petition was issued and posted it in one of the "landlord-tenant" communities. There were 130 comments within hours. I suspect that there are probably a lot more now. A video blogger also did a piece on the petition demands. Facebook has similar communities. Post the docs on the forums you frequent.
Involve your Housing Provider Association
If you belong to a housing provider association of any kind, bring the petition to their attention and encourage them to send out the cover letter and petition link to all your association colleagues. We're all in this together. If they haven't (or won't) do so, ask them why. Maybe they have a good reason but housing provider associations, by their inherent nature, are supposed to advocate for the best interests of their members and there appears to be none better than this one.
Stop Calling Yourself "Landlord"
I suggest you also stop calling yourself, or using the word, "landlord." It refers to a time and a "business" relationship that no longer exists, and generally carries a very negative connotation and stigmatism. You'll notice I rarely ever use "landlord" now. I prefer to remind everyone about the crucial service we provide to society without which no municipality, province (state) or country can grow - "housing provider."
Tenants Aren't "Investment Risk"
When tenants, politicians and others say housing providers must accept the "business" risk, that's utter nonsense. The business risk is in the investment of the property. Whether a tenant pays rent is NOT a risk of the rental housing business.
Tenants paying rent is a binding contract, authored by the Province of Ontario in our case, between two or more parties, which compliance with the agreed-upon terms and conditions is guaranteed by contract law and administered in common law, especially without exception, in every first-world country, as Canada is proud to be.
If an aggressive tenant says something thoughtless like, "Get out of the business if you can't accept the risk," you could try to explain the above paragraph but my experience tells me they won't listen. You might alternately reply, "If we all do that, where are you going to live?" (and maybe add an adjective at the end) but that might just add fuel to the fire. I suppose it depends on the situation.
In any event, we're already experiencing that. Ontario lost over 6,500 more rental units than were created, and we built 94,000 homes in 2023. Ontario was the only province that had a net loss in rental housing inventory.
If non-payment of rent was an inherent risk of rental housing then there'd be little-to-no rental housing anywhere in the world. That kind of flawed reasoning is the same as saying that the government protects the right of every customer of every retail store or other business of every kind to not be paid by, or receive some other compensatory benefit from, their customers. It's a ludicrous concept, even in real-world (not theoretical) socialist and communist regimes.
Get Creative
If you know of any other methods for getting the government's attention for this petition, please let me know. I'm happy to field any questions about the petition or even about rental housing and the shortage crisis.
Deadline
As per the cover letter, we'll see whether we receive a personalized, informed and satisfactory response by March 15, 2024. If not, then on to Phase 2 of "Operation Auto-Evict." as per the cover letter. :>)
Sign and Promote
If you haven't signed the petition yet and/or haven't promoted it to others you know that would be interested or are affected, please sign and promote now:
There can be no peace without justice.