Amid rising rental costs, a lack of available units, renovictions, and growing tenant frustration, a new grassroots community group has been established in Peterborough to educate and support renters.

“I wish I had had a community to guide me in the right way and give me some information,” Lydia Lambert, founder of the Peterborough Tenant Union (PTU), told kawarthaNOW in a recent interview about her motivations for organizing the group.

Lambert said she had been experiencing a number of issues within her home and she was unsure of where to turn for support.

Concerns raised about repair delays, lack of communication, health and safety issues

When Lambert began sharing her experiences and questions on social media, she found others facing the same challenges in rental properties across the city. According to a housing needs assessment completed for the City of Peterborough in 2023, over 40 per cent of Peterborough residents were living in rental accommodation.

“From my own experience I realized that I can’t be the only one who feels this way,” said Lambert.

Some of the issues that have been raised thus far include significant delays for essential repairs, a lack of clear communication from landlords and property management companies, and health and safety concerns such as bug infestations.

Similarly, on the popular r/Peterborough Reddit page, there are numerous posts from renters detailing the challenges they have faced in local properties.

“Cockroaches and bedbugs,” says one post.

“The owner kind of sucks … They’ll half-ass any fixes,” says another.

“Cheap rent but you’ll have ptsd from all the bugs crawling on you, not to mention the landlords are awful,” another reads.

Tenants fear speaking up will result in retribution

Lambert said that when confronted by these types of issues, many people are uncertain on how to manage them, especially when there is a lack of understanding of tenant rights in such situations.

In Ontario, the Residential Tenancies Act (2006) establishes the responsibilities and rights of both tenants and landlords. Despite these regulations, for many the fear of retribution for speaking up is too high to justify challenging their landlord.

“I found when I would talk to other tenants that they were often just as in the dark,” said Lambert. “They wonder, ‘How do we go about these situations? Are we going to get retaliated against if we bring something up?'”

One of the aims of the PTU is to foster positive relationships between tenants and landlords, Lambert said, by providing information and advice to landlords on their rights and responsibilities.

“We want to keep a good relationship and build something that everybody can walk away from feeling like things are fair and safe and good and healthy,” Lambert said.

Tenant unions forming across Canada

In addition to information sharing and providing support to renters, Lambert said that she wants the PTU to be active in creating positive change for tenants in Peterborough by advocating for systemic change.

“We would like to be a community that gets together and advocates for things to be better,” said Lambert.

Across Canada, groups like ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) have successfully advocated for tenant rights on issues such as rent controls, maintenance and repair costs being passed down to tenants, and protection from renovictions.

In Toronto, the city-wide Toronto Tenant Union was officially established on April 18 as a collaboration between York South-Weston Tenant Union (YSWTU) and Climate Justice Toronto. YSWTU was established in 2017 and has been involved in advocacy work, including letter-writing campaigns and rental strikes.

Lambert is looking to the success of these organizations with hope for tenant rights in Peterborough.

“It’s really encouraging that other communities are doing this and moving forward and advocating for things and seeing results,” said Lambert.

Group is holding its first meeting on August 2

Lambert said that at this stage the group is looking for feedback from the community about the issues they are facing, the support they need, and how the union should develop.

“The direction we take and where we go with this is really going to be geared to what we find is brought up a lot in our group,” she said.

PTU will be hosting its first virtual meeting on August 2 at 4 p.m., with details to be provided.

For updates and more information about PTU, follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and Reddit.

An annual initiative by a Peterborough-based firm that helps children in need head back to school with confidence is expanding beyond Ontario for the first time.

Gauvreau Accounting Tax Law Advisory launched its fifth annual “Gear Up for Good” campaign on Thursday (July 23) outside the firm’s King Street office in downtown Peterborough, complete with a school bus.

After previously only supporting children in the Peterborough area, this year’s campaign aims to prepare fully stocked backpacks for children in Manitoba as well, increasing the goal to 300 backpacks.

Of those, 200 will be distributed in the Peterborough region through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peterborough and the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Foundation. Another 100 will be distributed in Manitoba through United Way Winnipeg.

The expansion reflects Gauvreau’s growing presence beyond Ontario. In addition to its Peterborough headquarters and offices in Toronto and Ottawa, the firm has two Manitoba offices in Winnipeg and Steinbach.

“Every child deserves to feel prepared and excited when they walk into their first day of school,” said Gauvreau founder and CEO Robert Gauvreau in a media release.

“Gear Up for Good is about more than backpacks — it’s really about bringing businesses, employees, and community members together to make a meaningful difference for families who need support.”

Over the past five years, the campaign has grown through the support of Gauvreau employees, clients, local businesses, and community members. The firm says the campaign has provided more than 600 fully stocked backpacks to children and families since it began.

During last year’s fourth annual campaign, Gauvreau met and exceeded its goal of 200 backpacks by collecting and distributing 207.

Those backpacks were provided to Peterborough-area children through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Peterborough and the Kawartha-Haliburton Children’s Foundation. The campaign also provided participating children with snacks, haircuts, gift cards for future haircuts, and pizza dinners.

Peterborough business Ricart Branded Apparel & Promo donated 100 backpacks to last year’s campaign, while around 200 Gauvreau employees contributed by donating and packing supplies and helping coordinate the initiative.

This year, Gauvreau is once again inviting businesses, organizations, and community members to donate backpacks and school supplies, along with healthy snacks, water bottles, lunch bags, children’s haircuts, salon or barber services, and financial contributions that can be used to purchase needed items.

“Community partnerships are what make this campaign possible,” Gauvreau said.

“Whether it’s a fully stocked backpack, a haircut before the first day of school, or a donation of supplies, every single contribution helps set a child up for success — and gives them confidence to start the school year.”

Requested school supplies include backpacks, lunch bags and food containers, water bottles, pens, pencils, crayons, pencil cases, sharpeners, erasers, markers, highlighters, scissors, and calculators.

The Gear Up for Good campaign continues until Wednesday, August 12. Separate Amazon wish lists for Ontario and Manitoba, along with more information about contributing, are available at gauvreaucpa.ca/gearupforgood.

Donations can also be dropped off by noon on August 12 at Gauvreau Accounting Tax Law Advisory at 150 King Street West, Suite 100, in downtown Peterborough.

The backpacks are scheduled to be distributed on August 18.

Almost a year after Peterborough city council approved a controversial 17-storey high-rise in East City, the first visible stage of the development is underway.

Demolition of the Christian Education Centre beside Mark Street United Church at 90 Hunter Street East began during the week of July 20. The 1957 addition is being removed to clear the property at 90 Hunter Street East for a mixed-use building being developed by Toronto-based TVM Group.

The original church building, designed by Peterborough architect W.R.L. Blackwell and constructed between 1928 and 1929, is not being demolished. It will remain the property of Mark Street United Church.

To be located on the site of the demolished addition and extending to the north, the 17-storey development will contain 205 market-rent apartments — 66 one-bedroom, 110 two-bedroom, and 29 three-bedroom units — along with commercial space and four levels of structured parking. The plans include 201 vehicle parking spaces and 206 bicycle parking spaces on a site measuring around 3,350 square metres, or less than one acre.

When completed, the building will be taller than any building yet constructed in Peterborough, eclipsing the 14-storey Charlotte Towers in the city’s downtown. However, it will not be the only 17-storey building in the city, with Peterborough-based developer Ashburnham Realty also receiving approval for a 17-storey mixed-use rental building on Crescent Street behind the Art Gallery of Peterborough and near the shore of Little Lake.

On Thursday (July 23), kawarthaNOW spoke to a member of the demolition crew at the Hunter Street site, who was unable to confirm when construction would begin but suggested it would proceed as soon as demolition has been completed.

VIDEO: Demolition beside Mark Street United Church in Peterborough’s East City

In any case, the demolition is the first clear indication to date that the project is proceeding, following a lengthy and divisive municipal approval process.

The development emerged from an agreement between TVM Group and the board of trustees of Mark Street United Church. In exchange for the neighbouring church property, the church received four rental condominium units valued at $2 million in TVM Group’s nearby East City Condos development at Hunter Street East and Armour Road.

Rental income from those units is intended to provide the church with a continuing source of revenue. TVM Group also agreed to construct a new 1,800-square-foot hall on the north side of the original church building at no cost to the congregation, replacing the larger Christian Education Centre now being demolished.

When the arrangement was publicly explained in June 2024, TVM Group president and CEO Amit Sofer said the Christian Education Centre was underused and expensive for the church to maintain. He said the condominium units would give the church long-term financial stability instead of a one-time payment for the land.

At the time, Daryl Bennett, chair of the church’s board of trustees and its property development team, said the church had deliberately chosen income-producing real estate rather than putting the proceeds of a conventional sale in the bank.

The development presented to East City residents during an informal open house at the church in June 2024 was considerably different from the one city council ultimately approved. The original proposal was for a 10-storey building containing 156 apartments, commercial space, and 121 parking spaces.

Even at 10 storeys, the proposal raised concerns among neighbouring residents about its height and scale, the shadows it would cast, increased traffic on Hunter, Mark, and Rogers streets, and the potential for tenants and visitors to park on nearby residential streets.

Those concerns grew substantially when the developer’s formal application revealed in the spring of 2025 that the building had increased from 10 to 17 storeys. Although the number of apartments only increased by 49, the revised design also added structured parking and moved the residential tower onto a narrower footprint.

TVM Group did not hold a second open house on the 17-storey version before submitting it to the city, which was one of the complaints from opponents. Residents pointed out the original community consultation had been based on a substantially shorter and wider building.

Opposition eventually included two public protests, a neighbourhood website, an online petition that had attracted more than 450 signatures by August 2025, and numerous delegations to city council.

Those opposing the development maintained that a 17-storey tower was incompatible with an established neighbourhood consisting predominantly of detached homes, heritage properties, and low-rise businesses.

Their concerns included shadowing, privacy, traffic, the four-storey parking structure’s proximity to neighbouring properties, the effect on the historic setting of the church, and the precedent the development could set for further high-rises along Hunter Street East.

Some opponents stressed they were not against adding housing to East City or increasing density in principle.

“East City should be available to other people as well, and high density is probably the way to go for Peterborough to meet its housing goals,” neighbouring resident Desmond Vandenberg told kawarthaNOW in May 2025.

However, he argued there was an appropriate limit to the building’s height and that a lower development with storeys stepping down toward neighbouring homes would provide a better transition into the residential area.

For his part, Sofer said the revised design addressed several concerns raised about the 10-storey proposal. The taller tower has a narrower footprint that will reduce the impact of the shadow, the height of the building’s podium was reduced, the tower was moved closer to Hunter Street, and the new design provided greater setbacks from homes to the north.

He also argued the project responds to government direction to create more housing through intensification, by using existing municipal infrastructure instead of encouraging further urban sprawl. Sofer described demand for rental housing in Peterborough as “insatiable” and said the building would add housing, jobs, tax revenue, customers, and public parking to East City.

The project does not include affordable housing, with all 205 units planned as market-rent apartments.

In an August 2025 report to city council, staff concluded the proposed zoning amendment was consistent with the provincial planning statement and conformed to Peterborough’s official plan.

Staff noted Hunter Street East is included in the official plan’s downtown core area, where intensification is encouraged. Although a previous version of the plan included a 10-storey height limit, that restriction was removed following provincial changes and a decision by the city to accept a provincial modification eliminating building-height policies in the designation.

The staff report also concluded the building met the official plan’s definition of compatible development, noting that “compatible” does not require a new building to be the same as, or even similar to, existing development — raising a question among opponents if the city would determine that any proposed development is incompatible.

City staff also supported the increase from 10 to 17 storeys, explaining that the taller and narrower tower would cast a shadow that moves more quickly than the shadow of the original shorter and wider proposal. Municipal reviews also found sufficient capacity in water, sewer, transportation, and public school infrastructure, while the development’s parking supply exceeds the minimum required by the zoning by-law. Forty-eight visitor spaces on the main level are expected to be available to the public.

Following a five-hour public meeting on August 25, 2025, council meeting as general committee voted 7-4 to approve the zoning amendment. Council gave its final approval on September 3 after another lengthy meeting, a protest outside city hall, and 10 additional public delegations.

Mayor Jeff Leal and councillors Kevin Duguay, Lesley Parnell, Matt Crowley, Don Vassiliadis, Andrew Beamer, and Dave Haacke all supported the zoning amendment. Councillors Keith Riel and Gary Baldwin, representing Ashburnham Ward where the development is located, voted against it, as did Town Ward councillors Joy Lachica and Alex Bierk.

A motion from Riel to limit the development to the originally proposed 10 storeys was defeated 6-5.

Before demolition could proceed, council also had to consider the property’s heritage status. Although Mark Street United Church is listed on the city’s heritage register, it is not formally designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

City staff advised council that the Christian Education Centre was not an identified heritage attribute of the church and that its removal would not alter the original church. Council subsequently voted 7-4 not to object to its demolition, with the same four councillors opposed.

The original church will remain on the heritage register, with mitigation measures intended to protect its heritage attributes as development proceeds around it.

TVM Group previously estimated the development would take between 18 and 24 months to complete once construction was underway. A completion date has not been publicly announced.

The City of Peterborough has rescheduled the cancelled Canada Day fireworks display to the Civic Holiday long weekend.

On Thursday (July 23), the city announced the fireworks display will take place in Del Crary Park at around 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, August 1, following the Peterborough Musicfest concert featuring a tribute to country music stars Garth Brooks and Shania Twain.

The fireworks display over Little Lake was originally scheduled for Wednesday, July 1 after the Peterborough Musicfest concert featuring tribute band Neon Nostalgic. However, the threat of additional severe thunderstorms resulted in Musicfest organizers cancelling the concert, and the city cancelled the fireworks display soon after.

The city has also announced temporary road closures will be in effect from noon to 10:30 p.m. on August 1 for the fireworks.

Perry Street will be closed from the east side of George Street to the west side of Crescent Street, Lake Street from the east side of George Street to the west side of Crescent Street, Crescent Street from the north side of Romaine Street to the south side of Perry Street, and Lock Street from the north side of Romaine Street to the south side of Crescent Street.

Local traffic will still be permitted to access the areas within the road closures.