Hi neighbour,
Happy New Year! I hope you all had a chance to rest and spend time with loved ones over the past few weeks. My team is back in the office this week, and we’re ready for another year of building community and serving residents!
Here are some of the issues I’ve been working on lately:
Update on New Recycling Provider: Circular Materials
As you may have seen, the province has implemented changes to the recycling collection for municipalities. Responsibility for residential blue and black bin collection and processing was transferred to Circular Materials on January 1, 2026. Their contractor, Miller Waste started collecting on January 2, 2026. This transition is due to regulations from the Government of Ontario. The collection schedule for blue and black bins, garbage and leaf and yard waste is not changing. You can view your City of Ottawa collection calendar, which includes green bin and garbage collection, and Circular Materials’ recycling collection information for blue and black bins at ottawa.ca/CollectionCalendar.
As part of this new recycling system, you can now recycle more, including:
- Flexible plastic packaging such as plastic bags, chip bags and bubble wrap.
- Foam packaging such as meat trays, takeout containers and cups.
- Tubes such as toothpaste tubes, deodorant and hand cream tubes.
For more information about the new recycling system including a full list of items that can be recycled visit the Circular Materials website.
For questions regarding recycling bins, missed collections, and information on what you can recycle, please contact Miller Waste directly at1-888-852-2374 or area2@millerwaste.ca. If you’re having issues with the new service, please keep my office in the loop, as we’ll be sharing feedback on the transition with city staff over the coming months.
Rent Reduction for Multi-Residential Buildings: Ensuring Fairness for Tenants in Bay Ward
In August 2025, the City’s Revenue Services team shared this memo outlining the implementation of the Multi-Residential (MT) tax ratio reduction approved in the 2025 Annual Tax Policy report, and the process for automatic rent reductions effective January 1, 2026.
For a bit of background, in 2025 Council approved the reduction of the Multi-Residential tax ratio by 0.1, as part of a four-year plan to bring the Multi-Residential tax class in line with the residential tax class. These changes were made to ensure people living in older multi-residential buildings weren’t paying more in taxes than people living in single dwellings, or multi-residential buildings built after 2001.
Under the Provincial Residential Tenancies Act, rents for residential properties are automatically reduced when property taxes paid by landlords decrease by 2.5 per cent or more from the previous year. The legislation provides for the reduction in rent to come into effect the year following the reduction in taxes. As such, the City sent out notifications to impacted property owners and tenants last year, letting them know of the automatic rent reduction of approximately 0.89% coming into effect on January 1, 2026. With these changes, a tenant paying $2000 per month in rent would see their rent reduced by $16 a month.
I know this is a relatively small reduction, but with the rising cost of groceries and housing, I was happy to see this change coming into effect to offer some tax fairness for tenants in Bay Ward. Unfortunately, over the past several weeks my office has heard from several residents who have let us know that their landlord is refusing to comply with this rent reduction. I’m looking into this issue with the city’s revenue services team and have also been in discussions with the MPP for Ottawa-West Nepean, Chandra Pasma, to see how we can work together to ensure fairness for tenants.
If you received a notification for an automatic rent reduction from the City and have heard from your landlord that they don’t intend to implement the reduced rent, please let our office know (bayward@ottawa.ca) along with MPP Chandra Pasma’s office (CPasma-CO@ndp.on.ca). I will continue to speak out on this attack on tax equity for tenants.
Embracing Winter
Finally, as we head into the depths of winter, I’d love to take some time to highlight all the amazing winter recreational activities we can enjoy right here in Bay Ward. See the “Winter Fun” section for more information, and share your photos of winter activities with our team!
Read onthe full newsletter for more news and events across Bay Ward!
