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A petition is calling for the resignation of Brampton city councilor Gurpartap Singh Toor, pictured here, after residents learned he once co-owned a home with an illegal basement in Brampton.

There is a growing call for a Brampton city councilor to resign after residents learned he co-owned a home with an illegally rented apartment as the city works to crack down on thousands of non-compliant rentals.

The call follows reports that rookie Coun. Gurpartap Singh Toor was listed on the title of a Brampton home that had been “illegally rented” since at least 2021, according to the CBC.

Toor previously made headlines when he was linked to an abandoned house in Brampton that racked up more than $12,000 in property fines.

Some residents are now urging Mayor Patrick Brown to “immediately call for the resignation of Councilor Toor” in an online petition calling for “dishonest councillors” to be ousted.

The petition highlights the hypocrisy of a municipal councilor who owns a non-compliant apartment while the city is currently under a residential rental licensing program aimed at processing approximately 16,000 to 30,000 illegal rentals.

There was more than 260 signatures from Friday at 2:30 p.m.

The petition states that residents are concerned about “Toor’s refusal to become a landlord in the first place and then his failure to do anything about the legality of the premises.”

“I call on Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown to immediately request the resignation of Councilor Toor,” the petition reads.

The first-term councilor told INsauga.com he co-owned the home on Gardenbrooke Trail “for a brief period of time for personal family reasons.” He said he owned 1 percent of the property but no longer has “any interest in that property.”

“As far as city regulations go, they apply equally to me as they do to any resident of our city,” he told INsauga.com.

He says that after learning about the illegal suite, he “gave the same advice to my sister that I give to any of my residents: to use this as an opportunity to work with the city and to remedy any problems in order to bring the property into compliance.

“I believe that is what is happening in this case,” he said in a statement.

There are only a few ways to force a sitting municipal councilor in Ontario out of their job, and being part owner of an illegal rental or questionable property is not on the list.

For the petition’s signers to get their wish, Toor would have to step down voluntarily — something he says he’s not prepared to do.

“Regarding the petition, I firmly believe that the ultimate vote of confidence is an election,” he said. “I have a duty to serve my residents to the best of my ability until the next election. I hear committed residents who ask me to do better. To them I promise the same thing.

Under the city’s new residential rental permit pilot program, landlords who rent illegal housing face increasing fines. Failure to register for RRL by the end of September came with a $600 bill from the city, rising to $900 for the second offense and $1,200 for the third.

In addition to registration fees, the new RRL program allows Brampton Enforcement and Regulatory Services to inspect rental units “in response to resident concerns or where there have been previous compliance concerns “.

The program was relaunched in April after being suspended just weeks after its launch following complaints from local landlords.

This isn’t the first time Toor has been in the spotlight regarding properties in Brampton. The councilor is under fire over the state of a house on Queen Street owned by a numbered company linked to Toor.

The condemned property is a few blocks from Brampton City Hall and is reportedly sometimes used as an encampment for the homeless. In 2021, the property received 29 citations over approximately eight months, totaling some $12,500 in fines.

An Integrity Commissioner complaint was also reportedly filed against Toor by a law enforcement officer who was removed from the case after repeatedly asking Toor to pay the fines.

As for the property on Gardenbrooke Trail, Toor initially denied ownership, but it turned out he owned 1 per cent of it, the CBC reported.

“I’m no different than any other resident in the city of Brampton,” Toor told Insauga.com in June of the Queen Street home. He said he was just “one of many” directors of the owning company.

Before being elected to Brampton City Council in 2022, Toor was a special assistant to former Mayor Linda Jeffrey.

He challenged and defeated Gurpreet Dhillon in municipal elections in Wards 9 and 10 following allegations of sexual misconduct and harassment by the former councilor during a City of Brampton trade mission to Turkey in 2019.

Dhillon was the only incumbent Brampton councilor not up for re-election in 2022.

Toor reportedly owns three other properties in Caledon, according to CBC.

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