The City is set to introduce a new bylaw that will require landlords to obtain a licence when issuing an eviction notice for renovations or repairs. Council voted 21 – 5 in favour of the bylaw on Wednesday. When the bylaw comes into effect on January 1, 2027, landlords who want to evict a tenant in order to complete renovations will be required to apply for a licence from the City of Ottawa within seven days of issuing the eviction notice. Landlords would also be required to obtain a building permit prior to issuing the eviction notice, provide the affected tenant with a City of Ottawa product eviction education guide, and provide the city with details of the rental property and the scope of the construction.
An orange haze set over much of southern Ontario on Wednesday as smoke from nearly 200 active wildfires in northern Ontario drifted into the region. With the orange skies came an orange warning from Environment Canada about poor air quality. At one point yesterday morning, Toronto ranked first in a list of the world’s most polluted major cities, according to a global ranking by IQAir, a Swiss air quality technology company. The wildfires burning across northwestern Ontario have prompted mandatory evacuations from a number of First Nations communities, including Collins First Nation, located about 200 kilometres north of Thunder Bay, where some people had to flee the area by boat. The smoke is expected to cause another day of poor air quality and reduced visibility for much of southern Ontario today, before dissipating on Friday morning.
Defence Minister David McGuinty is expected to announce next week that Canada will play a role in an international program to build the next generation of stealth fighter jets. Government sources say that Canada has reached a deal to join the Global Combat Air Program as an “observer”. The United Kingdom, Japan, and Italy are all partners in the multibillion-dollar program to develop and build sixth-generation fighter jets by 2035. At the moment, Canada is still playing catch-up with the fifth generation of fighter jets, and the federal government is reviewing whether it will go ahead with purchasing its full order of 88 F-35s from the United States.
