The Ottawa Citizen is the latest national newspaper to come under fire for a recent article that incorrectly claimed a study found the city had a shortage of housing.
On Tuesday, The Globe and Mail published a correction to the article.
It said the study was conducted in 2002 and “did not take into account recent developments in Ottawa’s housing market.”
The Globe said it did not know the authors of the study and the researchers responsible for the study were the same.
The article said the data was based on data from the federal government’s Ottawa housing agency.
“The data is based on housing surveys conducted in 2001 and 2002 by the Office of Housing and Community Development,” the Globe article read.
“This is not a study of Ottawa’s shortage of affordable housing, and we regret any offence it may have caused.”
A Globe spokesperson said the paper had “no knowledge of the authors or the study they cited in their article” and that the article was “not based on official government data or research.”
The study was part of a broader look at Ottawa’s cityscape, including housing affordability and community cohesion.
In a statement, the paper’s publisher, The Tyee, said it was “deeply sorry” for the error.
“We’ve taken immediate action to correct the error and apologise for any offence this may have sparked,” the statement read.
On Wednesday, The Ottawa Sun issued a similar apology.
“Our story on this topic was taken out of context and misrepresented by the publication,” the paper said.
“There is no data on Ottawa’s affordability crisis and the data we provided in our story was based in part on data collected by the city’s housing agency.”