Ontario PCs seek abolition of tenant protections

On Thursday, Ontario Municipal Affairs and Housing Minister Rob Flack introduced Bill 60, the “Fighting Delays, Building Faster” Act. The bill contains sweeping reforms that remove tenants’ legal protections.

The Tories’ claim this legislation, like their other housing bills, is intended to build more homes by cutting red tape. 

“Delays and backlogs at the LTB [Landlord and Tenant Board] are hurting both tenants and landlords,” said the Tories in their technical briefing. “It is important for the government to take action to stop bad actors and improve speed, fairness, and accessibility at the LTB to help resolve disputes faster with the goal of eliminating the backlog.” 

Effectively, Queen’s Park intends to clear the LTB’s backlog by streamlining away any tools tenants had to defend themselves or seek accountability at an LTB hearing. The bill effectively nullifies Section 82 of the Residential Tenancies Act, which allows tenants to raise issues of poor maintenance, harassment, and illegal rent collection at a hearing where the landlord makes claims against the tenant for non-payment. 

The government is seeking to impose measures including but not limited to:

• Removing the ability to raise new issues on the day of a hearing on overdue rent
• Limiting new issues raised at the LTB unless 50% of arrears are paid by the tenant
• Reducing the time parties have to request a review from 30 to 15 days
• Shortening the eviction notice period in cases of overdue rent from 14 to 7 days
• Making it more difficult for the LTB to postpone or set aside an eviction order
• Increasing eviction enforcement staff
• Abolishing “security of tenure,” the guarantee that a tenancy be maintained on a month-to-month basis on the terms of the previous lease when a lease lapses or expires

In the middle of a national housing crisis, Ontario’s landlords, with strong representation in the provincial government, are being given an opportunity to charge greater rents. 

By abolishing security of tenure, landlords now will be given free rein to remove a tenant at the end of a lease and charge higher rent on the same unit. 

According to a report released in January of this year by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, almost 640,000 Ontarian households, or 12.1% of all Ontario households were considered in core housing need, meaning that housing is unaffordable, inadequate, or unsuitable, with no other local options available.