WATERLOO - The City of Waterloo had to change its rental housing bylaw after a complaint to the Ontario Privacy Commissioner about Waterloo collecting tenants' personal information.

Council voted this week to approve the changes.

"We certainly didn't want to impinge on anybody's privacy rights. We just wanted to have information available for when things came up in neighbourhoods that required potential resolution right in the neighbourhood," Coun. Mark Whaley said.

However, it's uncertain whether the matter is closed.

In an email, Trell Huether, senior communications adviser with the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario, would not say the matter is resolved or comment on whether Waterloo violated the Municipal Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

"We are working to resolve this matter and have no further comment," Huether said.

Waterloo's controversial rental housing licensing bylaw limits bedrooms and requires landlords pay fees. It was criticized by landlords who called it a cash grab.

It went into effect in 2012.

It requires Electrical Safety Authority and other inspections, but it was an application requirement that got the privacy commissioner involved.

At issue was a city requirement for landlords to provide the names and contact information for all tenants.

"The collection of that information relates to us being able to contact people when we've got urgent situations or concerns arising around either the maintenance of the property or behavioural issues around the property," said Shayne Turner, director of municipal enforcement.

In 2014, someone complained to the privacy commissioner about personal information being collected and an investigation was launched.

Discussions between the privacy commissioner's office and the city followed and, in early 2015, Waterloo said it would stop asking for tenant information other than names.

But the commissioner's office still questioned the collection of tenant names, according to a staff report.

Waterloo finally agreed to stop collecting tenant information altogether in late 2015, but didn't want to make the bylaw change until a review of the entire licensing bylaw currently underway is complete.

Staff relented at the privacy commission's request and changed the bylaw this week.

Any tenant information that has been collected to date will be destroyed by the city.

Turner was not employed by the city when the bylaw was created. He couldn't say whether the city consulted the privacy commissioner's office when the bylaw was created.

This isn't the first time Waterloo had to alter its bylaw.

In 2013, the Ontario Human Rights Commission released the results of an inquiry on the city bylaw and said it would challenge the bylaw on the basis it could be discriminatory.

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Waterloo's requirement for seven square metres floor-area per person was more stringent than the Ontario building and fire codes and could limit housing options for couples or others who want to share a bedroom, the inquiry found.

That could be discriminatory based on code grounds such as marital status, family status and sexual orientation, the commission said.

The floor space limits were amended to, among other things, delete floor area requirements for bedrooms with one or two adults. In exchange, the commission agreed not to challenge the bylaw.