No doubt about it. The Investment Committee of the Manitoba public employees pension fund has put a lot of space between its members and any possible irate public opinion in Toronto. In Winnipeg, they frequently don’t worry much about what people in Toronto think anyway. The nine-member committee is chaired by Peter G. Munro and includes the Manitoba Deputy Minister of Finance, John Clarkson. It’s unlikely the serene tone of the fund’s offices on the 12th floor of 444 St. Mary’s Avenue felt even a ripple of the shock that ran through the Kelvingrove and Glen Leven Apartments on Bayview Ave. in Leaside Monday. That’s when residents of the 140 units found out that their landlord, HPI Realty Management was telling them to get out of their apartments by September 1. Just go. The sooner the better. HPI is the lowest name on the hierarchy ladder which leads to the pension fund. Tonight the tenants of the low-rise and reasonable rental buildings are still trying to figure out where they stand. Their modest apartments were built by Howard Talbot, a one-time mayor of Leaside, and have been designated as heritage buildings by the City. In 2010, Kelvingrove ADMNS (the next name up the ladder) fought a long and bitter battle to demolish the units and build condominiums and townhouses. In the end, the Ontario Municipal Board ruled against this plan. The decision is considered by the Leaside Property Owners to be among its most important successes. But clearly the Investment Committee of the Manitoba public employees had more to say. The company has told tenants it is going to rip out everything. It will be impossible for tenants to stay. HPI carefully invokes the law and tells tenants that if they don’t agree to go it will have to file an application to the Landlord and Tenant Board to end the tenancy by August 31, 2013. The notices are carefully worded. Margaret Randall, whose mother Joan lives in the building at 1345 Bayview, says her mom was told when she leased the space about a year ago that if there were, by chance, renovations, she would be accommodated elsewhere in the buildings. But the Investment Committee’s strategy is now in over-drive. Get the buildings vacant, updated, increased in value and rented to people who can pay more. And then maybe sell Kelvingrove and Glen-Leven, or embark on another marathon battle this time to convert them to condominiums. They would no longer be low-rent accommodation. More like expensive luxury rentals. You could see how the new tenants might like that idea.
