Bill 184 threatens working-class neighbourhoods

The same people most hurt by the pandemic will be most at risk by reduced tenant rights

This week, the Ford government is expected to pass Bill 184. The bill proposes major changes to landlord-tenant law by amending the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA).

The bill is titled Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, but it will do the opposite; speed up evictions, tear communities apart, drive tenants into debt and weaken tenant protections at the Landlord Tenant Board (the board).

Under current law, the pursuit of eviction over rent arrears must be processed through the board. At the board, a tenant can access free legal advice through tenant duty counsel and have their case heard by an adjudicator. Usually, the adjudicator works to maintain the tenancy by ordering an arrears repayment schedule according to what the tenant can afford.

Among other landlord-friendly amendments, Bill 184 allows landlords to cut out the board by offering their own repayment plans directly to tenants. These agreements can be enforced as if they were board orders, if they include a clause referencing RTA section 78. If tenants fall behind on repayments, by being even a day late or a dollar short, landlords can file for eviction orders without needing to give notice to tenants. With this order in hand, the landlord can apply for the sheriff to remove the tenant and change the locks. A process that before took months could now take weeks.

Tenants will still have the right to go through the board process, but many may not know this. Landlords may take advantage of tenants who do not know their rights or do not speak English by pressuring them into signing agreements they cannot afford.

The bill is proposed to be retroactive to the beginning of the emergency order on March 17, so will apply to repayment agreements signed between tenants and landlords during the pandemic.

Legal clinics across the province, including the Hamilton clinic, are advising tenants not to sign repayment plans.

The bill was drafted before the pandemic and incorporates proposals submitted by landlord associations to the province soon after Ford took office. The Hamilton and District Apartment Association argued the province should “streamline” the process by introducing “default orders” and “broaden the ability for other officers, such as off-duty or retired police officers, to enforce eviction orders.”

Housing Minister Steve Clark invited Tony Irwin, president of the Federation of Rental Housing Providers of Ontario, to the House as his special guest to introduce Bill 184 when it was first debated. It’s clear now that calls for tenants to work together with their landlords were not made in good faith. We fear landlords will use Bill 184 changes as an opportunity to push long-standing tenants out and rerent units at higher rates.

As the economy reopens, we can expect the eviction suspension to be lifted, the board to reopen, and the sheriff to resume enforcement.

But life is not going back to normal for tenants in Hamilton. CERB cheques will run out for most people in September. Many of us won’t be able to return to the jobs we had before, at least not at the same hours or pay. Making rent will be tough.

Public health data shows that working-class and racialized people — often living in dense apartment block neighbourhoods and working in front line health care or service jobs — have been hardest hit by COVID-19. These are the same people who will be targeted for evictions by Bill 184.

As CERB payments dry up and people are not hired back to the jobs they’ve been laid off from, tenants will face a hostile environment in which their landlords have been granted even more power to evict them than they had before the pandemic and economic crisis began.

Tenants can work to defend each other against evictions by putting collective pressure on landlords and sheriffs to stand down. Whether Bill 184 passes in the legislature, we must not allow it to be implemented in our neighbourhoods.

Now is the time to organize with your neighbours and seek out support from groups like Keep Your Rent Hamilton, which formed in response to the COVID-19 housing crisis. Keep Your Rent is organizing to demand real relief: a moratorium on COVID-19 rent and evictions. Call 289-779-0758 or visit keepyourrenthamilton.com to get involved.

Contact the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic if you have signed a repayment plan or are at risk of eviction. The clinic office is closed, but giving advice over the phone and online. Call 905-527-4572 or visit hamiltonjustice.ca.

Katie Remington is a staff lawyer at the Hamilton Community Legal Clinic. Emily Power is a tenant in the Gibson-Landsdale neighbourhood and a member of Keep Your Rent Hamilton.