Renters waiting too long for government to protect them, says Green MLA

A Green MLA says it's unlikely the new Residential Tenancy Act will be tabled during this sitting of the P.E.I. Legislature, and wants to know what government plans to do to help people who need housing protection now.

Lynne Lund raised the issue during question period on Wednesday, and said she's had a number of conversations with Social Development and Housing Minister Brad Trivers about the Island's urgent need for new legislation.

P.E.I.'s new Residential Tenancy Act was first drafted in 2019 and is still in consultation. It is set to update 30-year-old legislation that is currently in place. 

Lund said there are a number of people in Summerside, where her district is, and across the Island facing "huge rent increases right now" — on top of the rising costs of groceries and other household expenses. She said government is taking too long to bring this new act forward.

"Given how expensive everything is right now, do you really think Islanders can afford to wait for better rental protections?" Lund asked.

Key changes in the act (which can be found here) include guidance on when to grant greater-than-allowable annual rental increases. There are also new eviction timelines, a right of first refusal for units after renovictions and compensation for people evicted without cause.

As well, the new act will allow for administrative penalties, and strengthen the complaints and enforcement process.

We've seen unprecedented market conditions and increases in housing across the province.— Housing Minister Brad Trivers

Trivers said the Green Party has been advocating strongly for tenants, but government also has to consider the rights of landlords and property owners.

"There are a lot of protections for tenants in the Residential Tenancy Act," Trivers said. "We have to make sure we ensure the supply of housing, and we ensure that landlords can provide those as well, and that's what we're going to do. We're going to continue working until we get the legislation right." 

More transparency needed 

Lund said while government has been working to develop the new legislation, people across P.E.I. have been struggling with housing issues — specifically rapidly increasing rents.

In the two years since the first draft of this legislation came out, rents are up 4.6 and 8.1 per cent, the two biggest rent increases of the last decade, despite rent controls that limited increases to 1.3 and 1.0 per cent. These are average rents, as measured by CMHC, and include new units, which are not rent controlled in the first year, and units where the owner successfully applied for a rent increase above the guideline.

Lund said for many tenants, going through a hearing for a larger-than-allowable rent increase is a disillusioning process. She asked Trivers why the hearing process is not more transparent, and questioned why certain decisions are not made more public.

Trivers said any rental increase outside of the annually approved increase needs to go through the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC).

He said transparency surrounding that process, and how those decisions are made, is an area the province needs to improve on and discussions about how to do that are already happening. 

"We want to continue to work with the opposition, we want to work with advocacy groups both for landlords and tenants and we want to get this right, because transparency is a key issue that we have to get right going forward," Trivers said. 

Protections in the meantime?

Lund said Islanders have waited too long for the new legislation to be tabled and many who are currently facing housing challenges need protection now. 

"It is desperately impacting people's lives," Lund said. 

"While we're waiting for you to get this bill to the House, are you considering any interim protections, like putting a cap on how much that allowable increase be so people are not priced out of their homes?" Lund asked. 

Trivers said his department is not looking at any specific measures at this time, but he is open to hearing ideas and nothing is off the table.

Trivers said the current act has been in place for 30 years and a lot has changed about P.E.I.'s housing situation within that time. 

"We've seen unprecedented market conditions and increases in housing across the province, and the act, frankly, is not standing up under that sort of pressure," Trivers said. 

He said the new legislation is not where it needs to be to be tabled yet, and his department will continue to consult with the opposition parties and advocacy groups to get it to that point.