Waterloo adopts rental housing changes

After months of public consultation and draft revisions, the Waterloo City Council passed revisions to its rental housing licensing program and bylaws. The new program and bylaw, which caused much public outcry during its revision stages, was passed at a meeting on Monday, May 9 with one major change since its revision in April: raising cap on the number of bedrooms that can be rented out from three to four.

Under the new rental housing program, homeowners who wish to rent out any part of their home must pay an annual fee and obtain a license before doing so. The rental units can occupy no more than 40 per cent of the total space in the home.

The Federation of Students sent a delegation to speak in favour of the plan.

The new rental housing licensing program and bylaw will come into effect on April 1, 2012.

For more information and a copy of the full bylaw document, visit: www.waterloo.ca/rhlr.

    
UW’s own attends third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability

University of Waterloo social innovation expert, Frances Westley, chaired a session on sustainable development at the third Nobel Laureate Symposium on Global Sustainability this past week. 

The Symposium, which took place from May 16 to May 19, invited over 50 leading thinkers, including 17 Nobel Laureates, to draft an action plan that will save the world from climate change, deteriorating ecosystems and poverty.

“The third Nobel Laureate Symposium will provide the evidence that a great transformation in societies is needed to achieve global sustainability and thereby a prosperous future for humanity,” said Johan Rockström, chair of the symposium, in a press release.

“Frances Westley, with her international academic standing on social innovations research, provides a critical part of the solution of how to transform societies towards sustainable development.”

The event will produce a memorandum signed by key Nobel Laureates.

The memorandum  will be sent the High-level Panel on Global Sustainability appointed by the UN Secretary General. 

Visit www.globalsymposium2011.org for more information.
 

Waterloo region launches three digit telephone number hotline for community services

The province of Ontario, the Region of Waterloo and United Way joined together to create a telephone number, 211, which connects people to community organizations and social services.

As a non-emergency function, the three digit helpline connects callers to 56,000 local agencies that provide various services such as  finding employment, settlement services and food bank programs.

 “Our information and referral specialists can help people feel empowered, especially those who have never had to ask for help before. We can help people connect to the right agencies and best resources a community has to offer,” said 211 Service provider representative Rosanna Thoms, in a press release.

The 211 telephone service was launched on May 6, and is available 24/7 in over 170 languages. According to 211 service creators, 92 per cent of callers have responded positively to the service, more specifically, they are grateful to amount of easy-to-access information provided by 211.

Visit  www.211ontario.ca for more information.

dnguyen@imprint.uwaterloo.ca