NDP MPPs and tenant rights advocates are slamming a bill from the Ford government they say would weaken tenants’ rights and make it easier to evict renters.
Bill 60, a large omnibus bill introduced by the government last week, includes a number of provisions around landlord-tenant disputes.
Chiara Padovani of the York-South Weston Tenants Union called the bill “a declaration of war on tenants” during a joint news conference at Queen’s Park Thursday morning with the NDP.
“Doug Ford and this PC government with Bill 60 is just looking to make it easier and faster to evict tenants who have lived in their homes for years so that their big corporate landlords can skirt around rent control by jacking up the rents for the new tenant,” Padovani said.
The province wants to shorten the grace period to issue an eviction notice after rent non-payment from 14 days to seven and shorten the time to request a review of a final hearing order from 30 to 15 days.
The bill would also require tenants to give prior notice of issues they intend to raise at hearings, barring them from introducing new issues without warning. The province says this is to avoid adjournments where the parties aren’t prepared to speak to an issue.
As well, a landlord would no longer need to offer a tenant compensation if they would like to take their property back for their own use, as long as they give 120 days’ notice. They would still be required to provide one month’s rent or offer a comparable unit as compensation if they give less than 120 days’ notice.
Speaking with reporters at Queen’s Park Thursday, Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing Rob Flack said the changes are “about balance” and “fairness to all.”
“Tenants have tremendous protections. That is not changing,” Flack said.
The Ford government has said the changes are intended to clear backlogs and delays at the Landlord and Tenant Board and to help target bad actors.
But the government has already backtracked on one of the most controversial parts of the original bill, a promise to consult on modifying “security of tenure,” the law that gives tenants the right to remain in their rental unit as long as they follow the lease agreement and the Residential Tenancies Act.
The government originally said it would explore “alternative options on lease agreement expiry” that would allow landlords “to adjust tenancy arrangements based on market conditions, personal needs, or business strategies.”
Attorney General Doug Downey said stakeholders told the government that “evergreen leases that just go on with no end in sight may not be appropriate.”
Following an outcry, the government said it would not move forward with the consultations on changing security of tenure. However, the bill still includes the provisions that would weaken tenant rights in disputes.
Padovani said there is already “no balance” at the Landlord and Tenant Board, and that renters get “eaten up for breakfast, lunch and dinner at that place.”
She pointed out that the wait for an eviction hearing is around three months, while hearings for complaints against landlords take 12 to 18 months.
“I want to be clear to Doug Ford, on behalf of the York South-Weston Tenant Union and renters all over this province: Keep your hands off our rights. Keep your hands off our leases and keep your hands off the Residential Tenancies Act.”
NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam said the province has done little to fix the problems at the Landlord and Tenant Board and is now trying to rush things along with changes that will hurt tenants.
“We are still seeing a broken system that is still years in the making for us to see the backlog cleared,” she said.
