{"id":23695,"date":"2019-05-02T12:07:15","date_gmt":"2019-05-02T16:07:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23695"},"modified":"2019-05-09T16:37:26","modified_gmt":"2019-05-09T20:37:26","slug":"gaertner-apologises-to-area-renters-following-council-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/gaertner-apologises-to-area-renters-following-council-comments\/","title":{"rendered":"Gaertner apologises to area renters following Council comments"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Councillor Wendy Gaertner issued an apology at the\nCouncil table last week after comments made earlier this month raised the ire\nof local renters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Councillor made her initial comments at the previous\nweek\u2019s General Committee during a discussion on feedback related to the ongoing\nissue of how to protect Aurora\u2019s \u201cstable neighbourhoods\u201d from infill\ndevelopments that might be out of place with the buildings around them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Referring to public feedback received online through\nPlace Speak, an online forum where Aurora residents can register their concerns\non myriad issues, Councillor Gaertner said while comments were continuing to\nroll in, some comments should be given greater weight than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt seems to me, but I don\u2019t know, that there are a lot\nof renters weighing in, and I don\u2019t think\u2026they really have any place in\nweighing in on this because they are not property owners and I think some of\nthe other residents who do not want protection are quite upset about this,\u201d she\nsaid. \u201cI think planning policies should be dealing with homeowners and not\npeople who might be transient in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her comments were picked up by Mayor Tom Mrakas, who\npointed out that the people in question are actually voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut we\u2019re dealing with planning policy and how neighbourhoods\nare going to evolve,\u201d she responded. \u201cI think that is really the purview of\npeople who own the properties as opposed to people who will be here just for a\nshort period of time. That\u2019s just my opinion.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor Mrakas continued to voice his concerns online,\nposting on Facebook that \u201cresidents were concerned\u201d with the Councillor\u2019s\ncomments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuffice to say, I do not agree with the member\u2019s\nposition,\u201d he wrote. \u201cIt should be noted that \u2018renters\u2019 can run for and get\nelected to Municipal Council. In fact, member(s) of Aurora Council have been\n\u2018renters.\u2019 Clearly, the Municipal Act provides all residents with the same\nrights to participate in our democracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is a recognized need for more affordable housing\nin Aurora \u2013 and, in particular, purpose-built rental units. I believe that we\nneed to find ways to provide more housing options so that our seniors can age\nin place, folks can downsize without having to leave our community and young\npeople have a place to live in the community that they have grown up in.\nEveryone that lives in our Town is part of our community \u2013 whether you own a\nhouse or rent one.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time of last week\u2019s Council meeting, Councillor\nGaertner admitted that her comments were \u201cill-considered.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLast week, I clearly misspoke when I suggested that\nrenters should not have the rights to express their opinions on PlaceSpeak,\u201d\nshe said at the start of the meeting. \u201cI was wrong. Obviously, there are many\nlong-term renters who are active members of our community and make valuable\ncontributions. As a renter myself, I should have realised this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn the moment, my words were ill-considered and I truly\napologize for any unintended feelings of disrespect that I may have caused. I\nhave always tried to help everyone \u2013 voters or not \u2013 because they are part of\nour community. Recently, apartment residents on Brookland Avenue and Orchard\nHeights had some serious concerns and I was pleased that I was able to help\nthem. I am especially proud of the work that I did to try and make basement\napartments safer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need to be working together for the benefit of our\nresidents and businesses, not finding ways to divide.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Councillor Wendy Gaertner issued an apology at the Council table last week after comments made earlier this month raised the ire of local renters. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-6ab","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-14 15:05:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}