CHAPLEAU EXPRESS
Local News Weekly
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Vol. 27, Issue 2, September 8, 2022
No elections necessary this October! By Mario G. Lafrenière hapleau will be without municipal elections this year. The lack of interest in municipal politics is on the rise in the province. In the province wide municipal elections on October 22, hundreds of candidates will win by acclamation in communities across Ontario — they've already won by default, because no one has registered to run against them. According to data compiled by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, Chapleau is one of 120 municipalities that have acclaimed their next head of council. Of 3,273 council positions up for grabs in Ontario, 536 have been acclaimed — up from 458 in 2014. In twenty-six municipalities, the entire council will be acclaimed this year. “The number of acclamations in Ontario municipal elections has been ticking upward since at least 2003, when the AMO began collecting the data — and political scientists say a lack of competition has long been a feature of local
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politics, especially in smaller communities. “I think there's a sense in a lot of these communities that that's just the way things are done,” says Aaron Moore, an associate professor of political science at the University of Winnipeg. People in small towns are less inclined to run for council, he adds, because it's usually a part-time job with little compensation and prestige.”1 The following people have been acclaimed. Ryan Bignucolo as Mayor. Catherine Ansara, incumbent Lisi Bernier, Paul Bernier and
Alex Lambrushchini as councillors. It would be interesting to find out if this is a first for Chapleau. If anyone knows about similar situations in the past, please let us know via email at chaexpress@sympatico.ca Let's all wish our new Mayor and Council the best of luck in managing and continuing to direct our municipality in the right direction. Navigating within the rules and regulations and the constraint of the Municipal Act is no simple 1) TVO Today feat.
NDP MPPs reintroduce bill to stop landlords from gouging tenants
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DP MPPs Jessica Bell (UniversityRosedale) and Bhutila Karpoche (Parkdale-High Park), along with Joel Harden (Ottawa Centre) and Terence Kernaghan (London North Centre), Long Term have announced they Forecast will reintroduce the Rent Thursday Stabilization Act: Pay High 25 What the Last Tenant Low 14 Paid, which would make Friday it illegal for landlords to High 26 raise the rent on new Low 16 tenants beyond the legal Saturday High Low
21 13
Sunday High 19 Low 12 Monday High 21 Low 12 Tuesday High 22 Low 10
limit.
The MPPs held a press conference Wednesday to address how their proposed legislation would crack down on skyrocketing rents by ending the current incentive for landlords to evict good tenants just so they can jack up the rent. They were joined by local tenants and housing advocates. “People in Ontario are smack in the middle of a housing crisis, and Doug Ford’s insistence on allowing landlords to hike the rent unchecked between tenants is a major contributor to driving up market rental prices, Bell said.
“People are being renovicted by landlords looking for an excuse to hike rents. They’re putting off growing their families because they can’t afford the extra room, and moving further away from the people and neighbourhoods they love." Doug Ford ended rent control on all new units in 2018, and did nothing to end vacancy decontrol, leaving landlords free to raise rent as much as they want in between tenants and on new units. This has contributed to Ontario’s skyrocketing rents and gives landlords an Cont’d on P.2
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