Moving or Relocating Anywhere From Canada? Change Your Address with Revenue Canada!

Below is a posting from Canada Revenue Agency on "How to change your address". This is an important process to do because your mail will NOT be forwarded and you could miss out on rebate cheques or child tax credits. Many times after closing we see this happening and when the new home owner marks "return to sender" this could delay delivery.

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If you move, let us know your new address as soon as possible.

Reminder
If you receive a Canada Pension Plan or Old Age Security benefit, you should also change your address with Service Canada.

By Internet

You can make changes or view the address and telephone number information we have on file for you online.

If you have registered with the My Account service, you can change your address by going to My Account. If not, you have to tell us your new address by phone, or in writing.

By mail or fax

Send your request by mail or by fax to your tax centre. Be sure to include your:

• signature
• social insurance number
• new address
• date of your move

By phone

Call our Individual Income Tax Enquiries telephone service at 1-800-959-8281.

Why is it important?

When you tell us your new address in advance:

• You can avoid any disruption to benefit payments you may be receiving, such as the GST/HST credit (including those from certain related provincial payments),Universal Child Care Benefit, and Canada Child Tax Benefit payments (including those from certain related provincial or territorial programs), and Working Income Tax Benefit (WITB) advance payments.
• We can mail your tax return package to the correct address next year.

Notes
Because an individual's personal information is confidential, generally we will not provide a change of address to other government departments or Crown corporations such as Canada Post. Similarly, they do not provide such information to us. The exception is Elections Canada, but only if you gave us your authorization by answering "Yes" to both Elections Canada questions on page one of your return. If you want other departments or organizations informed, you must contact them directly.

If you use our direct deposit service and you have a new account at a financial institution, inform us of your new account.

Source: Directly taken from the Canada Revenue Agency Website

Johnson divides students from families - Barrie Investing

• By Laurie Watt
 - Barrie Advance
BARRIE - In Barrie’s east end, it’s whether you’re east or west of Johnson Street.
That’s what Crystina Leondard discovered.
Rowdy neighbours prompted her to not let her kids outside to play.
“I can monitor my kids’ TV and internet, but I can’t monitor what’s going on outside,” she said. 
So she and her husband decided they had to move. 
A few blocks east, they discovered a whole new world.
“It’s such a nice change. We’re surrounded by kids and families,” Leonard said.
She knows she didn’t help the situation when she moved her family east.
“Having seen other neighbours try to sell their homes in the last couple of years and in selling our own, the mass majority of those looking at homes for sale in our (former) area are investors,” Leonard said. “Not all homes become rentals, but a good portion do. It seems so easy for anyone to become a landlord.”
Shannon Murree, a real estate agent specializing in investment and property management, said price plays a role in attracting both families and investors. The look of the house and the ones nearby play a role. Unkept lawns suggest rowdiness.
“With the population of students, good families are hard to find. They don’t want the noise. Renting to a family can be a challenge. There are certain pockets – closer to the college (that don’t appeal to families),” Murree explained.
“Look at the lawns. It’s a key indicator.”
Her investors are wary of the student area, even if the houses look well-kept. “I can’t get anyone to buy there, even though the house looks great and would appeal to families. They want families because they want their investments taken care of.”
Student Property Management’s Anna Moore said Barrie was on the right track when it established standards for boarding and lodging houses. The standards included fire safety inspections and minimum separation distances. 
But rather than enforcing safety and building code standards, Barrie focuses on parking and noise.
“There are two new conversions right beside mine,” Moore said. “I’m not the zoning police. The owners bought them and went to City Hall to get instructions on how to offer student housing – and my home was on record. I can’t fight City Hall.”
And Murree can sympathize.
“I live in the east end and always watch my crescent. I’m always saying, ‘God, I hope it’s not my street (that’s next),” she said. 

Originally posted online at Simcoe.com

Rez rules ( Guest Post and Part 4 of 4 Part Series by Laurie Watt)

BARRIE - Part four in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie. 

• By Laurie Watt

The sign on the building under construction on Duckworth Street says “luxury student accommodation.”
It may sound like an oxymoron to some, but not for London Properties owner Ray Stanton, who’s been in the student housing business for 20 years.
“They’re large apartments. A four-bedroom unit is 1,800 square feet, with all the appliances. There’s parking behind the building. We’re encouraging groups to rent them, and we’re targeting students that are in second or third year of their studies,” said Stanton.
Owning 4,500 units and managing another 8,000 beds on behalf of colleges and universities, Stanton acknowledges he prefers a more mature tenant – and ideally, a group of mature tenants who appreciate the conveniences – including in-suite washers and dryers.
Cost is $490 per month, plus utilities.
Stanton noted first-year students often choose residence: on-campus or nearby complexes like Georgian Green. 
Located at the corner of Duckworth Street and Bell Farm Road, Georgian Green is the oldest student residence in Barrie. Built in 1988, the three four-storey buildings offer five and six-bedroom suites. Each suite features a living area, high-speed Internet and a kitchen. 
The buildings have two Residents’ Assistants, one for every 42 students – who outline the rules right from the start of the school year.
“They make sure people don’t get hurt. They draw the limits for people,” said residence manager Terry MacFarlane.
“We set the tone at the beginning. It’s a matter of zero tolerance, so they know what they can and cannot do. You can drink in your apartment, but you can’t walk outside with it or it will be confiscated. We want them to have fun, but we want them to be safe.”
The three buildings feature security cameras, and onsite property management staff, as well as the RAs. The cost, including utilities and cable/internet, for a furnished room in a suite is $475/month.
Newer and with a few more rules is Georgian College’s residence, which opened in September 2002.
The eight-storey building that faces Little Lake houses 525 students in two-bedroom and three-bedroom suites. Fees for September to April total $6,139.
The college has rules, sign-in procedures and an overnight guest policy.
Guests must be signed in, and if not gone by 10 p.m., that guest is considered an overnight guest.
Students are not permitted to host overnight guests during registration/orientation week or any time during 24-hour quiet hours, without written permission from the Residence Life Manager or the college’s housing general manager. A resident may have a maximum of eight guest nights per month, and the number of guests is limited on occasions such as Halloween.

Dirty domiciles - Part three in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie

By Laurie Watt
BARRIE - Part three in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie.
Last year it was the police. This year, it was City Hall.
College Crescent homeowner John Rumney has had to make more than one call when it comes to students living in his neighbourhood.
This year, it was concerning the year-end piles of furniture, some broken, plus weeks of accumulated household waste, abandoned on the front lawn of the house next door.
“I’ve never seen anything like it,” he said.
According to Rumney, a girl moved out on the last Saturday of April and left her furniture behind for city crews to pick up – and taxpayers to pay for.
“There are couches, chairs, a broken bookcase and broken furniture, all on the front lawn. A truck came back (a few days later) and put two bags onto the lawn and drove away. I was stunned. I’ve never seen anything like it in the 16 years I’ve been here.”
Last year, it was the noise. The group of students that rented from an absentee landlord then were louder.
“They would keep me up at night,” he said, noting he’d had to keep his windows closed last May.
“They were out front and were drunk, yelling … at the top of their lungs. All I said was ‘Will you keep it down?’ They flipped out, literally freaked out,” he said.
“They stood in front of my house threatening to beat me to death and burn me out of my house. Nothing came of it.”
Still, he called police.
And while he had to call the city to remove the debris, he still has to abide by a one-bag limit and another 100-kilogram annual limit for heavy and bulky items.
“We’re told to tighten our belts, but in front of that house, there are five bags at a time,” he said, adding taxpayers like him are having to pay to clean up the messes others create.
Then there’s the parking issue. College Crescent, he said, is “choked with student cars.”
The garbage at year’s end, the parties throughout the year, the cars almost constantly, Rumney says it changes with the seasons, but adds: “It’s a never-ending cycle.”
Part 1: Back to basics
Part 2: Student housing can be messy 

Student housing can be messy - Part two in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie.

By Laurie Watt 
BARRIE - Part two in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie.For Bolton’s John Davidson, sharing a house with several others is part of growing up. 
Davidson, who has just finished his second year of the three-year hospitality administration program at Georgian College, said moving into a neighbourhood last fall gave him a chance to be more independent and gain some household management skills and take on some responsibility.
“The first year, I lived in residence. It was a good experience. Most people who come to college like to take that opportunity, but then you want to get your own freedom. You’re 18 or 19 and just leaving home, and it’s good to get out. I moved in here with a bunch of friends. It’s good to have your own house,” the 20-year-old said.
In their semi-detached, the five guys and one girl have three bathrooms and two common areas, as well as a kitchen and a fenced backyard. Sparsely furnished with the basics, the main living area also features a desk with a computer – which the household shares. 
The room rents – which range from $525 to $550 per month – cover utilities, cable and Internet, as well as access to a handyman, should a drain clog or fuse blow.
“It works. We have living space downstairs which we turned into a gym,” Davidson said. The group, he added, stuck together throughout the school year, although a few of them have left town to go to co-op placements.
“Sometimes we get messy. I like to consider them growing pains in college life. Sometimes, we’re not respectful of the noise bylaw,” he added, although one night, when an officer told them about a $500 fine, the group took the warning to heart – and never had another complaint.
“We had no idea (about the bylaw and the fines). It grows every time they come back,” he said, noting the first offence is almost as much as a month’s rent. 
He added two doors down, there’s another student rooming house – and he’s not heard them. Nor has he seen students commit other offences as they walk past his house on the way to the plaza at the corner of Duckworth and Grove streets.
“It’s a good location. It gets a bad rap,” he said. “For most people, other than a few celebratory parties here and there, you’re at home, quiet.”
Students, he noted, know the risks of having parties or keggers.
 “I haven’t seen all-night keggers. People get worried about destroying the place because they’re renting. People are cautious, because you want to know who’s coming into your place. You have to be careful and be respectful of your neighbour,” said Davidson.
And his lease with Student Property Management outlaws Facebook parties.
“You create an event and you invite 40 friends. Each of those can bring friends and within hours, your guest list can be mover 200,” he said, describing the parties that can quickly get out of control. “Everyone will show up, especially if there is a keg.”
With freedom comes responsibility – and second-year students who have moved from on-campus or even off-campus managed student housing appreciate the lack of rules and supervision. At the college, there are Residence Advisors, as well as rules and guest sign-in rules. Across Duckworth Street at Georgian Green, there are supervisors who enforce noise and behaviour standards.
But by second year, students are ready to grow up, Davidson said, so they look to share a house. 
“This is a quiet street, even though it’s a student area. People have parties and they bring their friends over. There have only been a few big parties,” he said.
“My first year, I lived in residence. It was a good experience. Most people who come to college like to take that opportunity, then you want your own freedom.
“I moved in here with a bunch of friends. It’s good to have your own house.”
Part 1 - Back to basics

Back to basics - Part one in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie (by Laurie Watt)

Part one in a four part series looking at student housing in Barrie. By Laurie Watt of Barrie Advance

BARRIE - Whether Barrie likes it or not, it’s a student community – and as Georgian College expands, so does its impact: its economic impact and its social, day-to-day impact.
With just over 5,000 students when president Brian Tamblyn took the helm in 1999, the college now has more than 10,000. It’s growing steadily, and its new health and wellness centre is expected to add another 1,800 students. Once existing program space is renovated as programs move into the new $65-million building, there’ll be room for another 1,200 students.
“We’re certainly one of the fastest growing colleges, if not the fastest growing,” said Tamblyn.
And with the number of students comes a need for housing, although Tamblyn suspects that the two don’t grow exactly hand-in-hand. With Georgian’s broader program appeal, more Barrie and Simcoe County students are staying at home to study, while commuting to Georgian.
Seeing the college’s growth plans, Barrie put a push on to increase the amount and quality of student housing. Four years ago, Barrie issued its Georgian College Neighbourhood Strategy – which introduced incentives for new projects, as well as identified sites. The strategy also began targeting problem behaviours like noise, parking and neighbourhood standards infractions. 
Five years ago, stories about drunken students smashing beer bottles as they ventured from party to party abounded. Noisy parties lasted all night and the squeal of tires punctured the daylight hours. There was an outcry for increased enforcement – of bylaws, liquor laws and building standards. 
“Things have improved because the city and police have paid a lot of attention to noise and property standards. There are still lots of issues, but my sense is it’s getting better,” said Mayor Jeff Lehman. “The strategy is still pretty young.”
He said housing built specifically for the post-secondary market – with the first projects set to open next month ¬– sets standards for students, and because it increases competition, it increases quality of the overall housing stock for students who want to live near the college and other services. 
Once a family area, the east end is now much younger, as students fill rooms and as former single-family homes are rented to students.
One landlord is Student Property Management’s Anna Moore, who hopes the city would enforce the standards it has set. More than anyone, she recognizes the need for safety, for rules everyone understands and for a bit of neighbourliness.
She calls the area ‘the student community’, and recognizes the need for better communication with neighbours – be they students, families or retirees.
“Let’s say I’m 70 and have a trunk full of groceries (to take in from the car). Most of these kids would be happy to help that lady out. They’re ordinary people, and so too are the neighbours,” she said.
She attempts to help tenants in the 16 houses she owns and/or manages understand the basics of living in a community: respect, communication and abiding by the bylaws (from noise to garbage). She’s creating a how-to pamphlet for students and for neighbours. 
Barrie East End Homeowners Association (BEEHA) reports an improvement.
 “We’ve seen an improvement in the behaviour of students overall. We don’t see the house parties with hundreds of students,” said BEEHA chair Colin Leonard. “There are still problems with (car) speed and traffic. It could be that there are fewer boneheads.”
Georgian Green residence manager Terry McFarlane noted students are more serious than they were five years ago likely because they see the value – and understand the cost – of a post-secondary education. 
“Georgian is getting a better reputation,” he said, adding some of the programs are attracting more-serious students, who aren’t leaving home to party the year away but to learn. 
Leonard added the college acknowledges education goes beyond the college campus. “They’re not saying there’s no problem, which was the battle five years ago,” he added.
Moore said the city needs to educate those who buy and convert houses to student rentals. The Student Property Management owner has been fighting for better standards for housing for the students, and like Leonard, wants to see absentee landlords, who don’t follow building and fire codes, leave town.
She remembers the day she learned firsthand about the standards, which she’d like to see others follow, too.
“A fire marshal came in and said, ‘You’re running a death trap.’ I did all the things a mother would do. I made it pretty,” she said. 
So she sought to make them safe, too, which meant installing fire separations and doors, alarms, egresses and more. The $30,000 per house cost was worth it, she noted, because her tenants are “someone’s kid”.
“There was a landlord with seven houses and he asked me to manage them. I went inside, and said, ‘I can’t.’ I had to fight with him to get trash off the property. The electrical was a problem,” she recalled.
In a report to the city, she advocates for an ombudsman, a place where landlords and tenants can go to get zoning and neighbourhood standards addressed. The east end, she said, is a community with special needs. It all begins with respect, she stressed. 


Original post distributed and online