Province needs to do more to safeguard renters

I made the jump into politics because I wanted my kids to have a livable future. What I didn’t realize was that part of that would mean fighting to ensure that when they grow up, they’ll have a place to live.

Due to the housing crisis many things that my generation took for granted — finding an affordable apartment, saving up for a down payment — are now totally out of reach for an entire generation.

Nowhere is this more obvious than in the skyrocketing rental rates that Ontario has seen over the past few years. For instance, between 2021 and 2023, Toronto saw average rents jump by 41 per cent.

Young people are leaving our province in droves in search of an affordable future. As legislators, it’s our job to create that future here in Ontario.

There’s no doubt that we need to be bigger and bolder in how we protect and expand our affordable rental stock. Some of the simplest ways the province could do this are staring us in the face. The only barrier to implementing them is the premier himself.

Earlier this year, the city of Hamilton passed the first anti renoviction bylaw in the province. It requires any landlord issuing an N13 eviction notice to first obtain a licence from the city, with proof that vacancy is necessary in order to complete the renovations. This changes very little for landlords who are already following the rules. If it were implemented provincewide, it could effectively eliminate an increasingly used tactic to kick out long-standing tenants in order to double or triple the rent.

Likewise, Toronto is one of the few Ontario municipalities that has a rental replacement policy — meaning that developers who demolish rental buildings of six or more units must provide affected tenants with an apartment of the same size and similar rent. Kitchener is on its way to doing the same.

Again, for the average small landlord, this doesn’t change much. But it’s estimated that Toronto’s policy has protected 4,000 rental units from being replaced over the past 15 years.

This is exactly the kind of measure we need to protect our supply of affordable rental stock in Ontario — because while it can take just a few minutes to demolish an affordable rental home, it can take years to rebuild one.

Earlier this year, I tabled a bill called the Keeping People Housed Act that would adopt these measures and more to create a better rental system where people aren’t penalized for holding onto their affordable rents, and bad actors can’t kick out long-standing renters just to turn a profit.

Because while the Ford government claims to have cracked down on bad actors who take advantage of the gaps in our rental system, those measures clearly haven’t worked. Of the thousands of renovictions that have occurred in Ontario since 2020, only four landlords paid fines at an average of $5,000 each.

Tenants often tell me that they’re lucky to have a good landlord. I tell them that it shouldn’t be luck — it should be the law.

If we as leaders truly care about creating a better future for the next generations, we must take action to put an end to this troubling trend of homes becoming hotels and hotels becoming shelters. No one in Ontario should be left without a safe and affordable place to call home.

Of the thousands of renovictions that have occurred since 2020, only four landlords paid fines at an average of $5,000 each