2021: PRESERVE, PROTECT, AND DEFEND
Complicated. That is the best word to describe the past year in the world of government relations. The LTB was open. Then it closed. Then it opened again, only to close. In no small part due to FRPO’s advocacy efforts, it reopened. And stayed open.
Given that the Ford Government would not reverse course on its 2021 rent freeze, we successfully lobbied for those legislative changes to only have temporary impact. In June the government published a return to the Annual Guideline for 2022, with the legislated formula producing an increase of 1.2%.
On another positive note, new members have been appointed to the Landlord and Tenant Board which brings the current compliment to 92 (and counting)! In hearing from our membership, we are advocating for the return of administrative support to Board members in issuing orders to relieve this bottleneck in the process.
In September, a number of RTA amendments came into force. The legislation aims to improve the relationship between good rental owners and good residents. Key changes include the following: Landlords will be able to seek compensation for unpaid utilities, rent and/or damages from former tenants (up to 1 year after tenancy termination)—these disputes would be handled by the Landlord and Tenant Board and not through the Courts Allowing landlords to recover costs for certain tenant misconduct (like a tenant unreasonably pulling a fire alarm)
Between now and June 2022, our goal is to preserve the policies that keep our industry operating, protect the interests of our members in dealings with government and opposition parties, and defend the progress we’ve made through the passage of Bill 108 and changes to the Residential Tenancies Act. Preventing the silly season of election politics from interfering with good policy is of utmost importance. Since the start of the pandemic (and frankly well before that), our members have done their part to keep Ontario’s purpose-built rental housing sector working for the people. We hope those in government and other political parties do the same.
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