Residents of an apartment building are being evicted due to renovations. The way it usually goes with these renovictions is that tenants that have stayed in one place for a long time have low, affordable rent. To be able to charge higher rent, the owners find a way to evict the current tenants and get newer ones to move in so they can charge market rates. This is commonly done by doing a building-wide renovation.

A short article from Chek News talks about this and includes some words from Douglas King of the Together Against Poverty Society.

https://www.cheknews.ca/bite-me-esquimalt-renters-fight-renoviction-something-province-says-they-stopped-1201838/

Tenants have been offered money to leave without retaliating. I’ve even heard of other renovictions being heralded by money offers that decrease over time to give people a sense of urgency to take the money and leave as soon as possible. In any case, these amounts never match the recurring cost of an inflated rental market.

Some members of VicTU have canvassed the apartment building and found that most of the people there have already left. Many of them are retirees and would have nowhere to go if they get evicted.

An article in the Capital Daily also explains that the owner of the build has done renovictions in the past, so it is clear this is done to increase rent.

https://www.capitaldaily.ca/news/tenants-in-an-esquimalt-building-worry-they-may-be-renovicted