The document discusses issues with poor conditions at a low-income apartment building in Oshawa, Ontario. Residents have formed one of the city's first tenants' associations to demand repairs and better treatment from their landlord. It also discusses the city's efforts to educate tenants on their rights and form more associations to advocate for improved conditions in aging rental buildings.

1. A8⎮TORONTO STAR MONDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 2015 ON ON0 V2
>>NEWS
“There’s non-stop crap in this
building,”saidresidentTerryGlover,
“andwestillpayhighrent.”
But it hasn’t always been this way.
Six years ago, tenants described the
buildingasa“minipalace.”
“Theyhadafountainoutfront.You
couldeatoffthefloors,”saidresident
JaniceParker.
Parker says she was forced out of
her apartment after the most recent
fire last month and hasn’t been able
to return. On a recent drizzly after-
noon,Parkerstoodintheparkinglot,
looking up at her unit’s blackened
windows, when a group of neigh-
bourscameovertocomforther.
Among them was Raymond For-
tune, who banded together with a
group of other tenants recently to
form a tenants’ association — one of
Oshawa’sfirst—andsaysdemanding
your rights is the only way to im-
proveyourlivingconditions.
AnnaProkopisgeneralmanagerat
thebuilding’slandlord,RoseGarden
Apartments Inc, who told the Star
she speaks on behalf of the owner.
She says she has upgraded the fire-
alarm system since the fires, as well
as the roof and hallways this year, all
withoutraisingrentaboveguideline.
To combat criminality and drugs,
shesaysshehasmadeadealgranting
Peel police 24-hour access to the
building. Prokop explained at length
the difficulties of running a low-in-
come building to the Star, saying her
ability to do repairs was constrained
by the large number of people be-
hind on their rent and the fact that
many won’t give her access to their
unitsforrepairsandpestcontrol.
“Everypennythatcomesinisbeing
put back, plus more,” she told the
Star. “If the tenants aren’t happy,
theycantakemetotheLandlordand
TenantBoard.”
The Wentworth apartment build-
ing is known at Oshawa City Hall,
where 162 complaints were filed in
the past five years, the majority for
substandard property conditions,
said Jerry Conlin, the city’s director
ofmunicipallawandenforcement.
Tenants’associationmemberstook
the Star on a tour of the building
recently,pointingoutthedeadcock-
roaches in the hallway lights, floors
that had been torn up but never re-
placed and long-neglected repairs
that they say were finally completed
aftertheassociationwasformed.
Fortune, who has been studying
landlord and tenant law as well as
city bylaws, says tenants who know
the landlords’ obligations are more
likelytogetrepairsdone.
He says a neighbour whose peeling
floor was left unrepaired for months
was astonished Fortune was able to
get his own floor fixed, weeks after
havingacitybylawofficercomein.
“He asked: ‘How did you get it
done?’ I told him: ‘Follow the pro-
cess.’”
Oshawa Councillor Amy England
has taken notice of the group’s work
andwantstogetsimilarassociations
started in other aging apartment
buildings. “We’re starting here and
moving to the building across the
road, empowering renters,” she said.
“Eventually, we’d like to start a city-
wideassociation,likeToronto.”
Oshawa has rental stock mostly
built in the ’60s and ’70s, England
said, and these aging buildings are
rife with maintenance problems.
Newer rental buildings are typically
targeted to specific groups: seniors,
aboriginal people and students. Peo-
ple who don’t fall into such catego-
rieshavefewrentaloptions.
“Toronto has a big housing prob-
lem.Suburbiahasthesameproblem,
but no one’s talking about it,” said
England, who has helped draft and
print 21,000 “know your rights” fly-
ersthatwillbemailedtoeveryapart-
mentbuildingunitinthecity.
“We haven’t had very many com-
plaints,becauseIdon’tthinktenants
are really aware of the rules,” she
said.“Thisisonlythebeginning.”
Tenants’ association one of the first in Oshawa
TENANTS from A1
Resident James Cheaters doesn’t mince words about 275 Wentworth St. E. The conditions are so bad, the owners should just "bomb the place," he says.
MARCO CHOWN OVED PHOTOS/TORONTO STAR
Raymond Fortune, holding a bag of cockroaches he collected in his
apartment, says tenants who know landlords’ obligations get repairs done.
“It’snotourbestworkhorse,butwe
appreciateit,”Labrecquesaid.
Since a 2012 Star investigation re-
vealed serious problems at ORNGE
— financial and safety related — the
agency has been steadily divesting
itself of unnecessary vehicles pur-
chased under the governance of ex-
CEO Chris Mazza, whose tenure is
beinglookedatinanongoingRCMP
investigation.
GCSurplus is a federal government
organization operating under Public
Works and Government Services
Canada. Its online auction website,
launched in January 2009, sells ev-
erything from high-end jewelry to
pallets of unused printer toner on
behalf of municipal, provincial and
federal government agencies across
thecountrythroughaclosedbidding
system.
AccordingtoPublicWorks,GCSur-
plus reported gross sales of $53 mil-
lionforthe2014-2015fiscalyear,with
proceedsforthesalesreturnedtothe
departments or agencies that pro-
videdthem.
Some of the items for sale have
beenseizedbyfederalandprovincial
law enforcement agencies. GCSur-
plussaysthatitssalesofseizedgoods
were in excess of $3.2 million in 2011
alone.
In April, media outlets including
the Star reported when a cache of
hockey collectibles, including an au-
tographed Maurice (Rocket) Rich-
ardjersey,wasofferedforsaleonthe
website.
Plane bought by Quebec company
AUCTION from A1
Most expensive items
á 1983 Sikorsky S76-A helicopter:
$399,000
á 1978 Sikorsky S76-A helicopter:
$286,590
á 1979 Sikorsky S76-A helicopter:
$276,000
á Damaged 2005 Cessna T206H:
$206,500
Canadiana
á Zamboni: $14,507
á Signed Wayne Gretzky 1992
all-star jersey: $3,328
á Manure spreaders: $4,000
Cheapest items
á Gloves (not used): $0.01
Computer desks and monitor stand:
$1.20
Nikon HB-23 Bayonet lens hood:
$1.33
Luxury items
á 1970 Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow:
$11,111.11
á Men’s 18-karat Breguet automatic
chronograph De La Marine watch,
featuring a genuine alligator strap:
$14,000
á 68 unmounted diamonds: Range
from $106 to just under $5,000
Weirdest items
á Gas-fired toilet: $1,111.12
á Early 19th-century Japanese
bronze enamel side table: $10,200
> SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE A SAMPLING OF AUCTION ITEMS
The OSSTF has a ratified three-
year provincial deal for its teachers,
but last spring called strikes in three
boards and this fall launched job ac-
tion in a few boards across the prov-
ince, including Toronto, on local is-
sues.
Now, locally, about 15 boards have
deals in place with OSSTF teacher
locals, “and more that are coming in
onadailybasis,andIhopethattrend
is going to continue. But the process
has become problematic, and the
wholethingneedstobereviewed.”
The OSSTF also represents some
15,000 support staff in a number of
boards,whodon’tyethaveprovincial
orlocaldeals,whoarealsoonawork-
to-rule and are still under a threat of
management docking their pay. To
make things even more confusing,
othersupportstaff—representedby
CUPE — have a provincial deal but
nolocaldeals.
“We are into the 18th month now,
and it will probably be another six
months until all deals are done.
Something needs to be done about
theefficiencyofthis,”Elliottsaid.
At Queen’s Park on Friday, Deputy
Premier Deb Matthews conceded
theprocesshashaditschallenges.
“Everybody’s going to want to sit
back and reflect on that and we’ve
committedtodoingthat,”Matthews
said. “There’s no question this was a
reallytoughroundofnegotiations;it
continues to be a tough round of
negotiations,”saidtheministerwho,
as Treasury Board president, is the
government’s point person on re-
straint measures. “Because not only
are we totally changing the process
. . .we’reina‘netzero’environment,”
she said, referring to the govern-
ment’s insistence that any gains in
the contracts be offset by cuts else-
where.
However, the government has
come under fire for providing $2.5
million to three teacher unions to
help cover their bargaining costs,
money the premier has said is “net
zero”butunionssayisnot.
Progressive Conservative MPP
Monte McNaughton (Lambton-
Kent-Middlesex) said the new sys-
temhasledtoproblemslikethecon-
troversial payments, not to mention
thetentativesettlementwiththeEl-
ementary Teachers Federation of
Ontario that enables teachers to
duckcrucialinterviewswithparents.
“Every parent and every student in
the province knows there is total
chaos in the education system. The
two-tier bargaining system is bro-
ken,” McNaughton said, urging the
Liberals to “go back to the drawing
board.”
Ontarioistheonlyjurisdictionwith
tiered bargaining that allows strikes
provincially and locally, which ob-
servers say may have been a way for
the government to appease the
unions into signing on to the new
system, given their history of strong
localbargaining.
But with Ontario centralizing
much of education, including the
funding, many argue it only makes
sense to have the big items such as
salary,classsizeorpreptimedecided
provincially. Bill 122, the School
Boards Collective Bargaining Act,
wasusheredin2014.
Alessandra Fusco, a spokeswoman
for Education Minister Liz Sandals,
said this is round one of bargaining
andallpartiesagreedanewstructure
was needed. The fact that deals have
been reached shows “successful ne-
gotiations (under legislation) are
possible even in times of fiscal re-
straint. The legislation establishes a
clear framework for negotiations by
creating a two-tier process with le-
gallydefinedrolesforallparties.
“Upon the conclusion of this full
round of negotiations, our govern-
ment has committed to consulting
with all of our education partners to
seek further improvements to the
frameworksothatwemaystrength-
enrelationships.”
Margot Trevelyan, former labour
relations and governance director
fortheMinistryofEducationduring
the time bargaining shifted from lo-
cal to central, previously said there
had been up to 500 collective agree-
ments reached throughout Ontario.
Theproblemwasthat“unionswould
negotiateagreementsataboardthat
wasrelativelywealthyandgetagood
deal their members needed, and
then try to pattern that across the
province with other boards that
mightnotbeabletoaffordit.”
Sooneadvantageofthenewsystem
is “it avoids that ratcheting up.” It
also gives boards a collective
strength.Before,boardsinthenorth
or rural areas wouldn’t have the
same power as the Toronto District
SchoolBoardeventhoughtheyfaced
localunionswiththesamebacking.
With files from Robert Benzie
Process of ratifying deals
‘has become problematic’
EDUCATION from A1