Tenants feel ‘betrayed’ by new legislation
Niagara tenant groups fear new provincial legislation that’s supposed to protect them will instead make it easier for landlords to evict them once the COVID-19 pandemic is over.
But Niagara’s lone Progressive Conservative MPP, Sam Oosterhoff, said that fear may be the result of a misunderstanding of what the legislation brings forward.
The tenant organizations say the new legislation, Bill 184: Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community, introduced last week fails to provide the protection they need.
Krista McCabe, president of the tenant association at 292 Oakdale Ave., in St. Catharines, said when tenants return to work when the province reopens, they will then be required to make arrangements with landlords to pay rent that had been deferred during the pandemic.
But after making the payment arrangements, she fears any further delays in making rent payment such as emergencies could result in tenants being evicted.
“Anything can happen. Everybody’s living paycheque to paycheque as it is because the rent market is absolutely insane,” she said.
Irene Motz, who leads a tenants association at Arlington Manor in St. Catharines, said Premier Doug Ford has “totally betrayed us.”
“Amidst all of this with COVID-19, now we have to think about this?” she said. “It’s horrible.”
The groups are encouraging tenants to write to local political leaders, as well as the premier and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, asking for a review of legislation.
St. Catharines MPP Jennie Stevens said the bill was introduced without prior notification last week, leaving opposition parties unprepared.
“Really, we had no idea what we were debating,” Stevens said. “There’s no rent freeze or rent control or any of that in there. There’s a lot of loopholes and grey areas again, and it was just the way it was pushed on us.”
She said the provincial government, like everyone else all over the world, “should be focusing on COVID-19.”
In an email, Oosterhoff said the new legislation will provide stronger protections for tenants who are evicted for renovations or are forced to leave for reasons beyond their control, while also increasing fines for landlords who have broken the law.
The MPP representing Niagara West said the legislation would also require landlords of small buildings to provide one month’s rent in compensation for evictions for renovations or repair, or when they evict a tenant on behalf of a homebuyer who wants to use the unit themselves.
“The proposed change will not impact tenants’ ability to raise new concerns at eviction hearings,” he said, adding tenants can still raise issues at the hearing if they gave advance notice or provide an explanation that is satisfactory to the Landlord Tenant Board as to why they could not give advance notice.
Tenants facing eviction also have the right to a hearing, where they can discuss extenuating circumstances related to arrears, he added.
Advocacy Centre for Tenants Ontario, a Toronto-based community legal clinic that specializes in protecting low-income tenants, also slammed the legislation, saying it allows tenants to be easily displaced from their homes and driven deeper into debt.
The organization urged the province to re-write the bill, focusing on protections that tenants need — especially during the pandemic and during the post-pandemic recovery — by continuing to restrict evictions and limiting rent increases.
The organization’s director of advocacy and legal services called the legislation “extremely short-sighted” and “fails to provide a clear plan to protect tenant homes when this pandemic crisis subsides.”