In mid-July of this year the City Council voted to refer a motion (initiated by Ward 22 – St. Paul’s Michael Walker and seconded by Ward 11- South Weston’s Frances Nunziata) to Toronto’s Executive Council to request that the Provincial Government support a return to what they termed ‘real’ Rent Control and the end of Vacancy Decontrol in the province.
In and of itself, the Council motion was not very meaningful and does not seem to have been picked up by the media. It did certainly raised concerns though that are important to us as tenants.
So, what were the Councillors supporting and what impact would the measures, if the Province chose to adopt them, have on us as tenants?
Rent Control
According to the Wikipedia, rent control refers to ‘laws or ordinances that set price controls on the renting of residential housing.’
An unregulated rental market is one in which tenants are subject to whatever rental prices landlords want to charge. Other than pay what the landlord demands, their only other option is to keep moving (an impossibility for many low-income and elderly tenants).
Rent control first appeared in Ontario (and in many other North American cities) just after World War II, when there was increased pressure for housing. In response to business lobbying against it, however, this phase of rent control in Ontario was short-lived, lasting only about five years.
Rent gouging and the limited supply of rental properties in the 1970s, again got folks galvanized around rent control. After much promising and little action, public pressure did finally produce some rent control regulation, implemented in 1986, under the Bill Davis government.
The Ontario Residential Tenancies Act (2006) currently regulates the rental housing market. However, some critics would argue that it does not the provide strong or ‘real’ rent control measures that we need.
The Act allows for annual rent increases, guidelines for which are based on the Consumer Price Index for Ontario and published by the Minister responsible for housing every year. Landlords generally cannot set rents higher than this published guideline plus 3% of the previous lawful rent charged with a few exceptions.
Vacancy Decontrol
Vacancy Decontrol [in place now in Ontario] is the big stumbling block in the Residential Tenancies Act, from a tenant’s perspective. Vacancy Decontrol is a policy that allows landlords to raise the rent to whatever the market will bear, once a tenant leaves.
Vacancy Decontrol weakens Ontario’s rent control as it
- On the benign side, gives landlords no incentive to try to retain tenants and on the sinister side, gives them every incentive to do things to make tenants uncomfortable enough to leave
- Creates a situation in which, as landlords jack up the rent on newly vacant units, a larger and larger number of Ontario’s apartments become unaffordable for Ontario’s moderate and low-income tenants.
- Has meant that tenants take a risk in leaving their current apartments, however miserable the conditions. Perhaps better to live with the evil you know than to brave a rental marketplace where there are fewer and fewer affordable units and the knowledge that you may never again pay what you pay now for rent.
On the face of it, the institution of ‘real’ Rent Control with the removal of Vacancy Decontrol are reforms that the Liberal McGuinty government supports.
Speaking in August 2003, Premier McGuinty is quoted as saying,
‘I want to be clear about our plan for Rent Control. We will repeal the Harris-Eves government Tenant Protection Act and we will bring back “real Rent Control” that protects tenants from excessive rent increases. We will get rid of Vacancy Decontrol which allows unlimited rent increases on a unit when a tenant leaves.’
The McGuinty government has yet to deliver on this promise and as tenants we are still faced with steadily growing rental rates, both from the annual tied-to-inflation allowable increases and from the exorbitant rates landlords can charge for a unit once a tenant has left it.
Change comes when we make our voices heard.
Let Premier McGuinty and the City’s Executive Council know that we are paying attention and that we want stronger rent control and an end to Vacancy Decontrol.
You can write to Ontario’s Premier at:
Dalton McGuinty, Premier
Legislative Building
Queen’s Park
Toronto ON M7A 1A1
and e-mail him here
You can reach the City’s Executive Council at
Mayor’s Executive Committee
Toronto City Hall
100 Queen Street West
10th floor, West Tower
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2
E-mail for the Committee can be sent through Patsy Morris at pmorris@toronto.ca
The Executive Council/Committee consists of Mayor David Miller [Chair], Deputy Mayor Joe Pantalone, and City Councillors Shelley Carroll**, Janet Davis**, Glenn De Baeremaeker**, Paula Fletcher**, Norm Kelly**, Gloria Lindsay Luby, Giorgio Mammoliti, Pam McConnell, Joe Mihevc, Howard Moscoe and Kyle Rae.
** Councillors from the East end of the City, including Scarborough.
Sources: City Council Notice of Motion; Wikipedia – Rent Control; Rent Controls in Ontario
East York Tenants Group 
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