The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) recently launched a Request for Proposal (RFP) process to establish an Indigenous-led National Indigenous Housing Centre, which would deliver funding to address core housing need among Indigenous Peoples living in urban, rural and northern (URN) areas. This is a critical step toward the implementation of an URN Indigenous Housing Strategy, which was a key commitment in the 2023 federal budget following prolonged advocacy from Indigenous and other housing advocates, including the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights (CCHR). Advocates have noted the importance of Indigenous leadership and governance over URN Indigenous housing to uphold Indigenous self-determination and sovereignty. Currently, the federal government has committed to invest $4 billion over seven years to implement the strategy, and an additional $300 million to launch it. While the creation of a National Indigenous Housing Centre is an important step forward, the government’s funding commitments are significantly lower than estimates from the National Housing Council to meet the depth of URN Indigenous housing needs, which is estimated at $56 billion over 10 years.
Vacancy and rental rates set new records in 2023, according to new data from the CMHC Rental Market Report. Rental vacancy rates declined to a historic low of 1.5 per cent, well below the three per cent rate considered “healthy,” with the lowest vacancy rates in Vancouver (0.9 per cent), Calgary (1.4 per cent), and Toronto (1.4 per cent). Notably, this decline occurred while purpose-built rental supply grew in most areas. At the same time, rents have increased at record high rates, increasing by eight per cent annually across the country. In line with the low vacancy rates, the greatest rent increases were seen in Calgary (14.3 per cent), Toronto (8.8 per cent), and Vancouver (8.6 per cent). The data also demonstrates the loss of affordability between tenancies, noting rent increased by 24.1 per cent for two-bedroom apartments that experienced turnover, compared to a 5.1 per cent increase for units without turnover. Rent growth also far exceeded wage growth across the country, with few affordable options available for low-income renters. In Vancouver, Ottawa and Toronto, there were functionally no available units affordable to the lowest income households. While the report focuses on the need for more housing supply alongside affordability measures, CCHR continues to advocate for comprehensive rent regulations across the country to combat these troubling trends and to better protect renters and preserve existing affordable housing stock.
Data from CMHC shows New Brunswick had the fewest new housing starts among the Maritime provinces in 2023, with 2.8 per cent fewer starts than the previous year, despite cancelling its rent cap policy at the end of 2022. In removing the rent cap, the New Brunswick government specifically cited feedback from private developers who argued that limits on rent increases stifle new housing development, in contrast to the recent provincial data. With many provincial governments prioritizing new housing supply through incentives for the private sector, this new data aligns with existing evidence that rent regulations are not at odds with new development.
Following its November 2023 report on the “deplorable” housing conditions faced by Inuit communities in Labrador (Nunatsiavut) and Nunavut, the Federal Housing Advocate, alongside the leader of Nunatsiavut Inuit, met with the Premier of Newfoundland and Labrador to discuss the report’s recommendations. This meeting came after prolonged advocacy from Labrador Inuit communities, with little to no action or response from the provincial government. The report includes several key recommendations, including transferring public housing to the Nunatsiavut government, developing a long-term plan to improve housing conditions for Labrador Inuit, and monitoring the plan’s implementation. They are also calling on the housing minister to visit the Nunatsiavut region to see the housing conditions currently facing Labrador Inuit. The housing minister has since committed to visiting the region “in the near future,” in addition to working with the Nunatsiavut government on a housing plan, which could include transferring control of public housing to Nunatsiavut.
According to a recent United Way Halifax report, Nova Scotia has the highest provincial poverty rate in the country, with more than 10 per cent of Haligonians living below the poverty line. The report specifically calls out the limited availability and affordability of housing in the province as a key contributor to the high poverty rate, citing the public housing waitlist reaching over 6,500 households. CCHR recently made a submission to the 2024-25 Nova Scotia budget consultation, calling for increased investments in truly affordable housing, including social and non-profit housing, greater access to rent subsidies, and stabilization of existing rental housing through more comprehensive rent regulation and supports for renters.
Following years of advocacy, Hamilton recently became the first city in Ontario to adopt a bylaw to prevent “bad faith” renovictions and enhance renter protections, with enforcement set to begin in January 2025. Under the bylaw, eviction and renovations can only proceed once a landlord applies for a $715 renovation licence (within seven days of issuing an eviction notice) and secures all necessary building permits, including an engineer’s report confirming the unit must be vacant to conduct the renovations. The landlord is also responsible for making arrangements (e.g., providing temporary accommodations or compensation) with renters who wish to return to their unit and must offer the same rental rate paid prior to the renovation. Failure to comply with the bylaw could result in up to $500 in fines per unit per day. Advocates across the province celebrated the new bylaw and CCHR’s Director of Policy and Law Reform, Dale Whitmore, emphasized its importance in protecting renters and preserving affordable housing. This new bylaw sets an important precedent for other municipalities across Ontario, as London and Toronto consider similar approaches.
Less than one month after its launch, Brampton’s two-year Residential Rental Licensing pilot program has been temporarily paused following petitions and protests from landlords across the city. The program would have required landlords in five wards to register rental properties with four units or less and be subject to random inspections, with the goal of preventing overcrowding and conducting needed maintenance and repairs. Landlords cited burdensome administrative requirements through the program, alongside claims that overcrowding was due to renters subletting their units. Meanwhile, renters and advocates had previously expressed concerns that corporate property owners had been exempt from the program, despite housing thousands of renters in Brampton.
The Association québécoise des retraité(e)s des secteurs public et parapublic (AQRP) released a report revealing that 88 private seniors’ residences (RPAs) in Quebec closed between October 2022 and September 2023, displacing more than 2,500 seniors. These closures have prompted concerns about the impact on seniors’ physical and mental health. The AQRP is calling on the Quebec government to include a clause in Bill 31 to ban evictions from RPAs and require RPA owners to provide affordable housing units when converting residences. RPA owners cite struggles with staffing and costs as reasons for closures, urging government intervention. The government has allocated $200 million over five years to support RPAs, but critics argue that more assistance is needed to address the challenges faced by RPA owners.
In the midst of an escalating housing and homelessness crisis, the new Manitoba NDP government has scaled back the previous government’s commitments for 700 new social housing units, instead committing $7 million toward 300 new units, citing insufficient budgeting by the previous government. However, the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Manitoba (CCPA-Manitoba) estimates Manitoba needs an additional 10,000 social housing units to meet current provincial needs. At the same time, over 2,000 social housing units in Manitoba remain vacant, with Manitoba Housing citing the absence of sufficient government funding for repairs and maintenance. CCPA-Manitoba estimates the cost of capital repairs and maintenance for existing social housing stock at up to $1.5 billion over 10 years, yet recent investments toward maintenance have remained below $40 million annually.
Despite staggering rent increases across the province (the highest in the country), the Alberta government recently rejected the opposition NDP’s proposal for a temporary rent cap of two per cent for two years, after which the rate would be tied to inflation for another two years. The Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services stated “rent control does not work,” focusing on supply-side solutions to the housing crisis. CCHR continues to emphasize the importance of rent regulation in protecting tenants and affordable housing, and recently released an advocacy toolkit in support of the NDP’s proposal, identifying it as a vital first step toward rent regulation, and ultimately renter protections, in Alberta.
Edmonton city council passed a motion declaring a housing and homelessness emergency in the midst of ongoing housing and affordability concerns across the city. The motion calls for an emergency meeting with provincial, federal and Indigenous governments and $3.5 million to set up a housing task force focused on long-term solutions, which could include rent control, transitional housing and use of city land for supportive and other non-market affordable housing. Over 46,000 households in Edmonton are in core housing need, with renters four times more likely than homeowners to be in this category.
First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society released a new report on children’s right to housing in British Columbia, noting that 37 per cent of parents reported being denied housing because they had children. Other key themes undermining children’s right to housing included unaffordability, overcrowding, waiting lists, and other intersecting forms of discrimination (e.g., disability, race, immigration status, source of income). The report includes recommendations to uphold the right to housing for children, including building and protecting more affordable rentals, increasing financial support for families, improving housing services, improving regulation of private landlords and strengthening protections under the Human Rights Code.
The B.C. Court of Appeal is seeking clarity from the province’s Residential Tenancy Branch on the rights of residents in transitional housing, citing “inconsistencies” in decisions, in particular those concerning evictions and guest policies. Currently, renters living in transitional housing are not covered by B.C.’s Residential Tenancy Act, leaving them with few protections and options to uphold their rights. The key inconsistencies in arbitrator decisions revolve around occupancy lengths, as transitional housing is meant to be temporary, though residents may end up staying for several years. Advocates hope the Residential Tenancy Branch will provide clear guidance and definitions on transitional housing so residents can be better protected and have greater access to justice.
The federal government committed close to $9 million to the City of Iqaluit through its Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), which aims to expedite the construction of 160 housing units over three years by increasing density, streamlining development application processes, creating a private land development framework, and working with non-profit housing providers to expand affordable housing. Building on the initial agreement with Iqaluit, the federal government also announced plans to invest over $27 million across Nunavut through the HAF over the next three years.
Following an initial review of the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act with community members last summer, the Government of Yukon is seeking public input on the Act, focusing on impacts for landlords, tenants and businesses. Interested participants can share feedback via an online survey (which will be open from February 1 – 29) and through in-person sessions in Whitehorse, Haines Junction, Dawson City and Watson Lake. Survey results will be shared later this year, with the Act scheduled to be introduced in 2025. The review of the Act is part of the Confidence and Supply Agreement between the Yukon Government and NDP.
New information gathered through an access to information request shows that Yukon civil servants had raised concerns about a program that provided one-time subsidies to landlords. According to the Premier, the program was meant to encourage landlords to keep their rental units on the market amidst high inflation and the new territorial rent cap. However, staff from the Executive Council office had raised concerns about whether the subsidies would have the desired effect, while also noting that the rent cap did not have any concrete connection to the low territorial vacancy rate. Moreover, staff from the Community Services department had flagged that the subsidy could undermine trust with renters. Since launching in October, the program has provided $630,000 in subsidies to landlords.
Across Canada, years of drastic increases to rental housing costs have put renters at the centre of a housing affordability crisis. Recent data show that this is a serious concern for 95 per cent of people in Canada, and two-thirds are in favour of strengthening rent regulation measures to help tackle this issue. Yet today, only six provinces have rent regulation policies in place, and the regulations that do exist vary widely across the country. The need to implement strong rent regulations that prevent practices such as rent gouging has never been greater. Here we bring you a snapshot of some of the challenging realities faced by Canada’s renters. All of these stories were originally reported by the media from across Canada.
In provinces where no rent regulations exist, renters can be subject to exorbitant increases.
In provinces and territories where rent is regulated, weaknesses and loopholes in the rules often incentivize landlords to evict tenants so that they can raise rents.
One Toronto renter told the West End Phoenix that she received a rent increase from her landlord that was well above the legal limit. When she pushed back, she was told by her landlord’s real estate agent that her landlord could serve her an “own-use” eviction notice as a way to force her to move out. “He explicitly told me that my landlord could say he wanted to move in, and I’d have to move out,” she told reporter Sakeina Syed. Toronto sisters Yumna and Khadeja Farooq told the Toronto Star that they received a $7,000 rent increase notice because of a loophole in Ontario’s rent regulation policy that exempts units first rented after November 15, 2018 from the province’s rent increase guideline.
Yukon also allows landlords to impose fixed-term leases with expiry dates. Despite a temporary rent cap being imposed, Yukon News reported that rents still rose by 15.4 per cent in Whitehorse and 14.4 per cent across Yukon over the two-year period since the cap was implemented. Like in other provinces where rents are not regulated between tenancies, both rent caps only apply to new renters.
Provinces that do regulate rents between tenancies have their own challenges.
When affordable housing options are not available, renters may be forced to live in precarious, inadequate and sometimes unsafe housing.
CBC News reported that seven per cent of B.C. renters live in units in need of major repairs and eleven percent live in overcrowded conditions.
Nunatsiaq News reported that in Nunavut, 37 per cent of the population live in homes needing major repairs, are not the right size, or are not affordable. In 2021, Nunavut’s MP heard first-hand about the dire conditions many people were living in, including overcrowded homes, crumbling walls, broken windows and doors, and black mould.
Paula Hudson-Lunn, who lives in Nelson, B.C., told CBC News that at 71 years old, she is having to look for new housing in a housing market with a 0.6 per cent vacancy rate. She says that even a smaller, less suitable place than her current home will cost her more than she can afford on her fixed income. “I may have to find full-time work in what should be my retirement years,” she shared.
Strong rent regulations are needed to solve this crisis.
These stories clearly show how renters across Canada continue to face growing housing insecurity due to a lack of protection against excessive rents. As a result, countless lower income renters are forgoing basics such as food and medication, while others are forced to live in poorly maintained or overcrowded homes that put their health at risk. Renters across the country are living in fear of losing their homes. It’s time for our governments to implement strong rent regulations to help ensure that all renters in Canada have secure homes.
Join us in calling on all provincial and territorial governments to take action on affordability by implementing strong rent regulation.
In January 2023, Scotiabank released a report calling on governments in Canada to double the country’s stock of social housing – deeply affordable housing where rent is set at 30 per cent of household income. Currently, Canada is an outlier amongst OECD countries: social housing makes up about 3.5 per cent of Canada’s housing stock, as compared to the OECD average of 7 per cent. At the same time, housing affordability continues to deteriorate across the country, with asking market rents rising between 12-25 per cent over 2021-2022. Households continue to struggle, as data released by Statistics Canada in February 2023 showed that one in four Canadians said that they were unable to cover an unexpected expense of $500. Data also showed that almost half of Canadians were very concerned with their ability to afford rent and had concerns about the rising costs of gasoline and food. In October 2023, housing advocates across the country joined a National Day of Action organized by Social Housing and Human Rights, a coalition of organizations and individuals advocating for more federal investment in social housing. The coalition called for 30,000 social housing units to be built across the country every year until 2034, with rent set at 30 per cent of household income in perpetuity.
In March 2023, the federal government released its 2023 budget. The budget included $4 billion over seven years, beginning in 2024-2025, to implement an Urban, Rural and Northern Indigenous Housing Strategy, co-developed with Indigenous partners. Although many welcomed this investment, it was deemed insufficient to effectively address the housing challenges faced by Indigenous households. In December 2023, the federal government announced the next steps for developing this strategy. The Federal Housing Advocate noted that the budget failed to address the major systemic issues that are preventing the realization of the human right to housing in Canada, including action on homelessness and the financialization of housing. In November 2023, the federal government released the Fall Economic Statement which also fell short on investments for affordable housing. While it was announced that $15 billion will be geared towards incentives for private developers, only $1 billion was allocated to the creation of social, non-profit, and co-operative housing. Other measures included removing income tax deductions on short-term rentals, better protections against foreclosures, and more flexible mortgage lending rules. CCHR’s Executive Director Annie Hodgins said that these measures are a step in the right direction, but that not enough was included for renters who need truly affordable housing. CCHR had submitted a series of recommendations to the federal government during its pre-budget consultation process in October 2022.
In April 2023, the National Housing Council published a report on the progress of the National Housing Strategy. The report found that Canada is losing affordable housing faster and in greater quantities than they are being created under the strategy. The report concluded with several recommendations on how to revise the strategy to adequately address the housing crisis including: 1) aligning the strategy with rights-based goals articulated in the National Housing Strategy Act; 2) allocating more funding towards creating non-market housing; 3) enhancing the Canada Housing Benefit; 4) establishing a separate funding stream for Indigenous housing programs; and 5) strengthening accountability and coordination within the federal government and with other levels of government. These recommendations have not been implemented by the federal government.
In April 2023, Canada’s first Review Panel was launched to examine the impacts of the financialization of purpose-built rental housing. The goal of the Review Panel was to look at the impact of the financialization of purpose-built rental housing on the housing system and the right to adequate housing as well as the federal government’s role in addressing this growing issue. The Review Panel received 194 written submissions from people affected by the financialization of housing, civil society organizations, experts in housing and human rights, and representatives from the purpose-built rental housing sector in Canada. Oral hearings for the Review Panel took place between October and December 2023. CCHR joined fellow experts to elaborate on our submission, to answer questions, and to recommend solutions.
In December 2023, the federal government passed Bill C-56, an Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act, in an effort to increase housing supply. A measure in the Act includes the removal of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on new rental construction. The bill is set to increase the GST rental rebate from 36 per cent to 100 per cent to incentivize the construction of apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences. According to the Department of Finance Canada, this will provide homebuilders with $25,000 in tax relief on apartments valued at $500,000. The initiative is expected to cost $4.5 billion between now and 2029. The rebate will be available to buildings with at least 4 apartments or 10 private rooms, as long as at least 90 per cent of the units are used for long-term rentals. The federal government has called on all provincial governments to apply the exemption to the provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST), however some housing advocates pointed out that these types of incentives are more geared towards increasing the profit margins of developers rather than creating the types of affordable rental units that households truly need.
In the fall of 2023, the federal government began providing funding to municipalities and provinces under the Housing Accelerator fund. Housing Minister Sean Fraser asked various municipalities to implement transformational changes to increase housing supply and affordability, such as by ending exclusionary zoning, in exchange for funding under this program. Several municipalities secured funding under these types of agreements, including London, Calgary, Brampton, Halifax, and Toronto. In October 2023, the Government of Quebec and the federal government reached an agreement to receive $900 million under the fund. The Quebec government pledged to match the federal funding for a total of $1.8 billion and to spend all of it on non-market housing options over the next five years, including co-operative housing, low income housing, and subsidized housing. Although housing advocates in Quebec acknowledge the province’s pledge as a good sign, they said that they will only take it seriously once it lays out its spending priorities.
In June 2023, the province released a housing strategy called NB Housing: Housing for All. The strategy was based on input from over 160 housing stakeholders, ranging from community groups and non-profit organizations to builders, developers, homeowners, educators, and students. The strategy focused on preventing residents from becoming unhoused and identified $500 million of new and previously committed funding to put towards housing. New initiatives introduced under the strategy included funding for a new Rent Bank program for two years and a new tenant rental housing benefit to help protect tenants’ security of tenure. Despite these developments, tenants’ rights groups and opposition members of legislative assembly were disappointed that rent caps were not included in the strategy.
Homelessness and poverty became more visible problems in St. John’s as the cost of living continued to rise. End Homelessness St. John’s estimated that about 900 people experienced homelessness in the province in 2022 which represents a significant increase compared to the 165 people estimated to be experiencing homelessness in a 2018 point-in-time count. The method for measuring homelessness has changed and could partly account for the higher number. However, the rising rates of homelessness cannot be denied as evidenced by the rise of tent encampments. Advocates said that the government must address this issue with long-term policy solutions which also tackle the structural causes of homelessness.
Newfoundland and Labrador’s housing minister has not yet responded to a report by the Federal Housing Advocate, released in November 2023, that details the housing crisis faced by Inuit communities in Newfoundland and Labrador (as well as Nunavut), with several recommendations to address the issue. Housing issues detailed in the report include the lack of secure housing which can be traced back to the provincial government’s decision to forcefully relocate the Labrador Inuit decades ago. This has resulted in households being forced into overcrowded living conditions. Inadequate upkeep of social housing units over the years has exacerbated housing problems. In the wake of the report’s release, the president of Nunatsiavut, in Northern Labrador, said that his government was ready to meet with its provincial counterparts to work toward solutions, but the provincial housing minister has not publicly responded to the report. Lack of public comment by the province on the report has reinforced the feelings of communities on the North Coast of Labrador of being forgotten.
In April 2023, Halifax Regional Council passed a bylaw to create a rental property registry. This marked a significant victory for renter advocates led by Halifax ACORN members, who advocated for the establishment of landlord licensing for several years. The registry will apply to all rental units within the municipality, which can lead to more data being collected on the available rental stock and stronger oversight of safety and maintenance for smaller rental buildings. Under the bylaw, property owners must register their rental properties by April 1, 2024. After that date, owners of rental properties that are unregistered may face fines of up to $10,000.
In April 2023, the Nova Scotia government passed legislation that extended the current interim rent cap to the end of 2025 and increased the rent cap from 2 per cent to 5 per cent annually, beginning in January 2024.The government stated that this amount was chosen to allow landlords to catch up to inflation, while avoiding any large rent increases for tenants. The interim rent cap was first introduced as a temporary measure in November 2020, in response to a housing affordability crisis that has escalated in recent years due to rising housing costs, the lack of affordable housing options for low income households, and the lack of construction of rental housing which has not kept up with population growth. The rent cap was extended in February 2022. While advocates were relieved to hear that the rent cap will be extended again, they were concerned that the cap was increased to 5 per cent, with some calling for a permanent rent cap of 2 per cent. Advocates were also concerned that the new legislation did not address a remaining loophole that allows landlords to misuse fixed term leases to get around the rent cap.
In April 2023, the provincial government adopted a new Residential Tenancies Act (RTA). Under the new RTA, the maximum rent increase for 2024 was set at 3 per cent. To increase rents beyond the rent cap, landlords must apply to the Residential Tenancy Office, and the director must consider various factors in deciding whether to approve the application, including the expectation of the landlord to have a reasonable return on investment (ROI). However, it remained unclear what “reasonable” means. Some landlords have been known to get a return of 15 per cent on their investment, and interim Green party leader, Karla Bernard, questioned whether such a high return was fair to tenants. In November 2023, the Green Caucus said that the new laws around rent increases require further clarification and asked for changes in the RTA to set fixed percentages for ROIs to help landlords estimate the potential ROI on a property before they purchase it, and to prevent unfair rent increases for tenants during their tenancies.
In January 2023, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice denied the Regional Municipality of Waterloo’s request to remove a homeless encampment, in what was seen as a precedent setting case. The ruling was in line with case law from British Columbia, which found that it is an infringement on Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms rights to deny someone the ability to find shelter outside when there is no adequate or accessible space for them within the shelter system. The Court found that, as the number of people experiencing homelessness exceeded the number of shelter beds in the City of Kitchener, the region could not use its bylaws to prevent people from setting up temporary shelters on municipal land. The decision further articulated how the court interprets ‘accessibility’ and ‘availability’ of beds within the shelter system. Supporters of the decision indicated that the precedent set by this case will be a powerful tool for those advocating on behalf of encampment residents in Ontario and across the country. In November 2023, the Court denied a similar application by the City of Kingston for an order to clear an encampment, for similar reasons.
In July 2023, Toronto’s first Deputy Ombudsman for Housing, Reema Patel, was appointed. This new role was established to investigate systemic housing issues and monitor the planning and delivery of Toronto’s housing services and programs. The Deputy Ombudsman will also engage with individuals and communities facing housing precarity and other adequacy challenges to advance fairness in housing access and program delivery. The Deputy Ombudsman started their first investigation into the city’s decision to deny shelter access to refugee claimants and asylum seekers in May 2023. They were told that shelters were at capacity, and that they should seek help from federal programs, resulting in dozens of refugee claimants and asylum seekers being forced to camp out on the sidewalk outside a shelter intake office for several weeks. Following community mobilization and public outcry, the federal government announced that it would provide an additional $210 million to fund interim housing for asylum seekers, with $97 million being allocated to the City of Toronto.
In June 2023, the Quebec government tabled Bill 31, which was set to make it easier for landlords to refuse a tenant’s request to assign their lease, among many other proposed changes. In an environment where rents have been escalating, lease assignments were providing some tenants a way to limit rent increases. The change provoked protests among tenant advocates. Other changes in the bill included a new provision where landlords must indicate the maximum rent in a lease for the following five years and increasing compensation requirements for landlords who want to evict tenants. CCHR provided our input on the bill. The bill is currently under review and its adoption has been postponed to 2024.
In October 2023, the NDP party won the provincial election, and secured enough seats for a majority government. NDP leader Wab Kinew became the first First Nations provincial premier in Canada. The Manitoba NDP made several housing promises before the election. These included bringing the renters’ tax credit from $525 to $700, limiting landlords’ ability to apply for above-guideline rent increases, and developing a regulatory process to ensure affordability is maintained when a non-profit or co-operative housing provider tries to sell buildings that were designed to be affordable housing.
In March 2023, Saskatchewan introduced increases to provincial assistance programs in its budget, including $14.3 million for the Saskatchewan Income Support program which includes a shelter benefit. The increases amount to only $30 more for most recipients. Advocates said that the increases are not enough, pointing out that many households who receive the shelter benefit under the income support program cannot afford to pay their rent. This issue will worsen as rents continue to rise.
In May 2023, The United Conservative Party (UCP) won the Alberta general election on taking 49 seats at the legislature, while the New Democratic Party (NDP) took 38 seats. The UCP remained confident in the 2021 provincial housing strategy “Stronger Foundations” and did not provide any new measures to address the issue of rent increases that has been felt across all urban centres in the province.
In December 2023, the Alberta official opposition introduced Bill 205, the Alberta Housing Protection Act, into the provincial legislature. The purpose of the bill is to create a two-year temporary rental cap at 2 per cent, followed by a two-year rental cap tied to inflation. The bill would also increase reporting requirements to ensure that the government is meeting its intended housing targets. The bill was introduced as a response to rental increases in the province which have limited the affordable housing options of many people and left them struggling to keep up with the rising cost of living. The provincial government continues to argue that rent regulation is not effective, and instead points to the rental supplement program it offers which supports low income Alberta households as a solution. Rent regulation is essential to keeping rents affordable in the long term and maintaining tenants’ security of tenure, and yet only six provinces in Canada currently have a rent regulation policy in place.
In October 2023, Edmonton city council approved a new zoning bylaw that will introduce the first new significant changes in decades. The new changes will allow infill housing to be built in any residential lot in Edmonton, and allow for dense housing on any lot in the city, with some zones allowing infill and small apartments and others allowing high-rises. The hope is that the new bylaw will allow much needed housing of different types to be built in the fast-growing city.
On November 1, B.C.’s Minister of Housing tabled Bill 44 to help accelerate the construction of new housing. The Housing Statutes Amendment Act would require municipalities to plan their zoning process in advance to allow densification, by adapting their long-term urban development plans to housing needs forecasts and updating their zoning bylaws every 5 years. In addition, municipalities must designate Transit Oriented Development (TOD) areas where upzoning would allow for buildings of up to 20 stories high near transit stations. Upzoning requirements are further supported by measures to fast-track development approvals and funding, by allowing municipalities to use development charges to fund part of the public infrastructure needed for housing development, for example. The province will be releasing a manual in December to support municipalities in the process, and has also announced that it will provide standardized home designs to guide developers in adapting new building forms to upzoning requirements.
In October 2023, Northwest Territories Premier Caroline Cochrane was joined by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in Yellowknife to announce a jointly funded project between the federal government and the Territory. Under the project, the City of Yellowknife will provide the land while the federal government will provide the capital under the rapid housing initiative to build 50 new affordable homes. However, the Prime Minister did not make any commitments for federal support to improve the infrastructure in the territory, which Premier Cochrane was pushing for. The premier has been critical of the lack of support for infrastructure in the Northwest Territories and said that the gap between Northern and Southern Canada was highlighted during the record wildfire season experienced in the territory in 2023, during which many living outside of Yellowknife lost their homes, and 70 per cent of the territory’s population was displaced. The premier also emphasized that the territory needs support in building affordable housing supply, as well as support in upgrading necessary infrastructure to protect the territory and its residents from future climate disasters.
In November 2023, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate released an observational report on Inuit housing, following their meetings with northern communities in 2022. The report stated that the housing conditions in which Inuit communities live are a direct violation of their right to housing. There is a serious shortage of housing in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut, and a high incidence of poverty and homelessness. In addition, access to basic services and proper heating and ventilation are crucially lacking, due to the prohibitive costs of construction and repairs in remote areas. Finally, overcrowding and the lack of accessible and culturally adequate housing were other prevalent issues the Advocate discussed with community members and leaders. The report recognized that these issues are rooted in the histories of colonial violence and forced displacements of Indigenous communities, coupled with chronic underfunding of northern communities. The report also provided recommendations developed jointly with Inuit leaders to ensure that the right to housing of Inuit communities is upheld. These recommendations aimed to empower Inuit governing entities, and included proposals such as transferring jurisdiction and funding of Inuit housing programs to Inuit governments, creating an independent Ombudsman for Inuit housing, and taking into consideration the climate realities of Arctic Canada, amongst other measures.
In February 2023, Yukon’s Liberal and NDP parties signed a confidence and supply agreement that included significant changes to rental regulations including prohibiting landlords from evicting tenants without providing a reason. Prior to this change, Yukon was one of the only jurisdictions in Canada where evicting a tenant without cause was permitted. Another change introduced was a minimum and maximum rate for rent increases, capping rent increases at 5 per cent annually regardless of the rate of inflation. The agreement also included a commitment to carry out a review of the Residential Tenancies Act, which is yet to take place.
Renters across Canada are facing exorbitant rental housing costs, driven by excessive rent increases and the loss of affordable homes. Many renters are left with so few housing options that they can afford, leaving them vulnerable to “economic eviction,” or being forced to live in a home that is inaccessible or so poorly maintained that they present dangers to their health and safety.
In the absence of strong laws that regulate rents, private landlords are free to charge rents far higher than what is necessary to cover their expenses and make a reasonable profit. This practice is known as rent gouging, and it’s causing rents to climb excessively across Canada to the point that half of renters are worried about being able to pay their rent. In many places, price gouging laws prohibit businesses from taking advantage of emergencies to overcharge for basic necessities. Yet, even though housing is a basic necessity and a human right, rent gouging is legal everywhere in Canada. Moreover, the regulations that do exist vary widely across the country.
Here we provide a breakdown of how each province and territory treats rent regulation, and their shortcomings in ensuring that renters have a secure place to call home.
Where no regulations exist, renters’ homes are fundamentally insecure.
In Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Saskatchewan, rents are not regulated at all. Once per year, landlords can raise the rent by any amount, even if their costs haven’t increased. There is no requirement that rents be stable, fair, or reasonable.
In these provinces and territories, renters’ homes are fundamentally insecure. No renter can be confident that they will be able to afford their rent for longer than a year, and there is always the risk that they will face an excessive rent increase and be forced to leave their home because they simply can no longer afford to stay.
In fact, in 2023 the New Brunswick government abolished a rent cap that was in place in 2022. The government enacted new rules which, in theory, require landlords to spread rent increases over multiple years. But the new rules do not limit the amounts of increases, and so they are not effective at ensuring that rents are affordable or reasonable.
Nova Scotia and Yukon currently have temporary rent caps in place. These caps are important, but they only apply to existing renters, and not to new renters. When a renter moves out of their unit, landlords can charge the next renter of that unit any amount they wish. This is when rents can increase drastically, and landlords do not need to provide a reason to explain why they are changing a far higher amount to a new renter.
Moreover, Nova Scotia and Yukon both allow landlords to impose fixed-term leases with expiry dates, usually after a year. Landlords can easily evade rent caps by forcing renters to move when their lease expires.
Where rent regulations exist, only some renters are protected from excessive rents.
Ontario and British Columbia have longstanding rent regulation systems. However, like in Nova Scotia and Yukon, the rules only apply to existing renters who do not move. Landlords are incentivized to evict renters from their homes so that they can raise rents.
Renters in Ontario and British Columbia are not fully protected during their leases either. The rules allow landlords to apply for permission to raise rents well above the regular rent increase limits set each year by the provincial government. In theory, these increases are supposed to allow landlords to recoup increases to their operating expenses, such as maintenance costs. But the rules are broken, and in practice landlords are allowed to impose rent increases far higher than their cost increases – widening their profit margins at renters’ expense.
Plus, in Ontario the rules do not apply at all for renters living in homes first occupied as a rental after November 15, 2018. Once per year, landlords can raise those renters’ rent by any amount they wish.
Only Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, and Quebec regulate rents for units when renters move. This is called “vacancy control,” and it is essential to make rent regulation effective. But the rules in all three of these provinces are flawed in other ways.
In Manitoba, the rules do not apply for 20 years after a building is built. For renters living in homes built less than 20 years ago, landlords can raise the rent by any amount once per year. The rules also do not apply to renters whose rents are higher than $1,615. Finally, landlords are allowed to apply for excessive rent increases, far higher than their costs have increased – and far higher than the increases allowed in Ontario and British Columbia.
In Prince Edward Island, landlords can apply for unlimited rent increases at the discretion of a tribunal. The tribunal has typically prioritized landlords’ profits, leading to some extremely high rent increases. The provincial government recently changed the rules, directing the tribunal to also consider renters’ interests. Time will tell whether the new system will effectively protect renters from excessive increases.
Quebec is the only province that imposes somewhat reasonable limits on rent increases. However, Quebec places the onus on renters to enforce the regulations themselves, by doing their own calculations and refusing excessive increases. This is particularly difficult for new renters who often have no way of knowing whether the landlord is telling the truth about how much they charged the previous renter. Renters living in homes built less than five years ago are also not protected by any rent regulation.
It’s time for strong rent regulation.
Protections against excessive rent increases vary widely in provincial and territorial laws, and renters are not adequately protected against rent gouging anywhere in Canada.
Effective regulations are needed in every province and territory to ensure that rents are fair for all renters, no matter where they live. Whether they are staying in their current home or moving to a new home, whether they live in an old or a new building, whether or not their landlord’s costs have increased, and no matter which province or territory they live in, renters deserve to be protected against excessive rents and rent gouging.
Join us in calling on all provincial and territorial governments to take action on affordability by implementing strong rent regulation.
In the face of an ever-worsening housing crisis, governments implement programs and policies designed to produce new affordable housing. To evaluate the effectiveness of these policies, an important question to ask is: how affordable will the “affordable” housing be? Will the people who need it actually be able to afford it?
We know who needs affordable housing. Statistics Canada and the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) determine that a household is in “core housing need” if they spend more than 30% of their income on housing costs, or if they have to live in overcrowded or poorly maintained housing due to the lack of affordable options. Data shows that, of the households in Ontario that are in core housing need:
11% havevery low income. These are mostly households receiving social assistance benefits. They generally cannot afford adequate housing in the private market, and most are living in inadequate and unaffordable housing due to a drastic shortage of public and non-profit housing across the country.
66% have low income, roughly the equivalent of one full-time minimum wage job.
21% have below-average butmoderate income, roughly equivalent to the starting salary of a nurse or teacher.
1% havemedian income – the average income of households in the province.
Almost nonehave above-averagehigh income.
In 2020, the Ontario government adopted a Provincial Policy Statement which sets targets for producing housing that is affordable to low and moderate income households. This was an important step forward, because most Ontarians in core housing need have low incomes. It is essential that the government produce housing that meets their needs and is affordable to them.
In 2022, the Ontario government introduced a policy called “development charge exemptions.” In brief, when developers want to build new housing in a municipality, they have to pay fees to the municipal government. Under the 2022 policy, if a developer agrees to build “affordable” housing, the municipality is required to waive the fees. This is intended to incentivize developers to voluntarily build affordable housing.
A significant problem with the 2022 development charge exemption policy was that it did not follow the Provincial Policy Statement’s definition of affordable housing. Instead, the policy exempted development charges for any housing with rents no more than 80% of average market rent. Market-based definitions of affordability, such as this one, are widely recognized by experts as being flawed. As we all know, in a housing crisis, market rents have vastly outstripped what people can actually afford. Indeed, in Ontario, rents at 80% of the average market rent are not affordable to any low income households. This contradicted the Provincial Policy Statement which states that affordable housing should be affordable to both moderate and low income households.
On December 4, 2023, the government passed Bill 134, the “Affordable Homes and Good Jobs Act, 2023,” which will make housing produced through development charge exemptions even less affordable than it already is. The government states that Bill 134 is intended to bring these exemptions in line with the Provincial Policy Statement, but in fact it has done the exact opposite, by increasing the market-based definition of affordable rent from 80% to 100% of average market rents. These new rents will no longer even be affordable to most moderate income households.
Bill 134 has also added an income-based definition of affordability. However, this defines housing as “affordable” if it is affordable to households at the 60th income percentile for renter households. Those households are median income households, so housing under this definition will not be affordable to any low or moderate income households.
In our submission to the Standing Committee on Heritage, Infrastructure and Cultural Policy, we explain why Bill 134 would be a step backwards for housing authority. We urged the government to adopt our recommendations to make affordable housing affordable to the low income Ontarians who need it. Unfortunately, our recommendations were not taken up in Bill 134, but we will continue to advocate for solutions to the affordable housing crisis that will actually help those who need it most.
The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
A new report commissioned by the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate (OFHA) found that the projected affordable housing supply shortage in Canada was almost triple than what the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s latest Supply Gaps Estimate report suggests. The new OFHA report, written by housing expert Carolyn Whitzman, found that Canada is currently missing 4.4 million homes for people in housing need and would need an additional 9.6 million homes by 2031, with a third of the supply going towards very low to moderate income households. For the first time, the report includes populations previously excluded from census counts of core housing need, like students, people living in congregate housing, people in long-term care and people in situations of hidden homelessness.
On November 21, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland presented the federal government’s 2023 Fall Economic Statement to the House of Commons. Measures for housing and affordability are at the centre of the fall update, but funding of new housing supply would represent only a fraction of the funds needed to address the current housing supply shortage. The dedicated budget for affordable housing is also minimal. While $15 billion will be geared towards incentives for private developers, $1 billion will be allocated to the creation of social, non-profit, and co-operative housing. Other measures include removing income tax deductions on short-term rentals, better protections against foreclosures, and more flexible mortgage lending rules. CCHR’s Executive Director Annie Hodgins said that these measures are a step in the right direction, but that not enough is included for renters who need truly affordable housing.
The National Working Group on Homeless Encampments issued a guide on municipal engagement to help support people living in shelters or in the streets. Across Canada, encampments are multiplying in and around metropolitan areas due to a severe lack of capacity in shelters and a lack of adequate housing alternatives. The Municipal Engagement Guidance report encourages municipalities to adopt a respectful and dignified approach towards encampment residents, by providing essential services on site, developing safety protocols with the residents, and exploring all possible alternatives for re-housing before resorting to evictions.
A recent survey by New Brunswick ACORN looked at the effectiveness of property maintenance bylaws across the province and found that, even in cities where such bylaws exist, enforcement was an issue. Many tenants reported problems with their unit related to the presence of pests and mould, unsanitary conditions, lack of adequate heating, or issues getting their landlords to do the required repairs. Property maintenance bylaws are enforced based on complaints received from tenants. The survey shows that 86% of tenants are not aware of the existence of legislation on property maintenance standards, and 41% are afraid to make requests to their landlord. In addition, the cost of repairs, when carried out, can be passed onto the tenant and lead to rent increases beyond what is considered reasonable by the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office. To ensure that property maintenance standards are enforced, NB ACORN proposes establishing a landlord licensing program that includes registration fees for all units, regular proactive inspections by the municipality and prohibitive fines for landlords found in non-compliance
For rent increases that go beyond the rent cap established by the Residential Tenancy Act, landlords must apply to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) and demonstrate that the additional rent increase is necessary to recover costs or get a reasonable return on investment (ROI). However, it is unclear what “reasonable” means, and some landlords have been able to get rent increases of up to 15% approved. P.E.I.’s Opposition Green Caucus is asking for changes in the RTA to set fixed percentages for ROIs, to help landlords estimate the potential ROI on a property before they purchase it, and to prevent unfair rent increases for tenants.
After being in place for two years, P.E.I.’s moratorium on renovictions ended on November 1, 2023. Rules in the new RTA provide some safeguards, by requiring an eviction notice of 6 months, and granting existing tenants a right to return to the unit after renovations are completed, or one month’s rent as compensation. With vacancy rates at 0.8%, housing advocates argue that provisions in the new RTA are insufficient to protect tenants against evictions for renovations. On November 8, Opposition Leader Karla Bernard tabled Bill 108 to extend the renoviction ban for another year.
Montreal’s Bylaw for a Diverse Metropolis requires new developments of more than 450 square meters to include at least 20% social housing units, 20% affordable housing units and 20% family housing units. Developers can opt out of these requirements by paying a financial contribution or ceding a portion of the land to the City. The City’s Housing Commission received a report showing that in two years, the “20-20-20″ bylaw resulted in only one social housing project, despite the City entering into 164 agreements with private developers. Developers consistently prefer to make a financial contribution rather than building new social and affordable housing, but even the $26 million collected by the City would not cover the cost of a single social housing project. Critics of the bylaw, along with construction professionals and Montreal’s Board of Trade, called on the City to suspend the bylaw. After a public hearing on November 10, the City decided to keep the bylaw in place, with adjustments such as increasing the amount of the contribution paid by developers.
Spurred by the requirements for upzoning citywide to access $192 million through the federal Housing Accelerator Fund, Winnipeg City Council passed a motion to allow fourplexes and four-story buildings near transit and commercial hubs. The rezoning process is expected to be implemented gradually starting in the spring of 2025. The City is also considering piloting a density bonusing program that would allow developers to build more units than what zoning rules allow, in exchange for including 20% of units that would remain affordable for 20 years. Both developers and housing advocates are in favor of the pilot program, which, if approved, could be applied citywide starting in 2025.
The number of housing units deemed uninhabitable by Saskatoon’s Fire Department is increasing year after year. The Department is responsible for carrying out inspections to ensure that property managers are in compliance with the City’s Property Maintenance & Nuisance Abatement Bylaw, and had to issue several notices of closure to both tenants and homeowners, leading to displacement of residents, most of them seniors or low income families. The Fire Department is now collaborating with the University of Saskatchewan on a research project to understand the effects of municipal policies and economic support programs on housing security. Based on surveys with frontline responders, the results of the survey should help the City to develop more proactive policies that can ensure habitability without compromising housing security.
On October 31, the City of Calgary’s Community Development Committee received a report advocating for the creation of a formal Council Advisory Committee on Housing, following recommendations by the Housing and Affordability Task Force. The role of the Council Advisory Committee on Housing will be to advise Council on housing-related initiatives, monitor progress in affordable housing supply and strengthen collaboration with other levels of government and civil society. The Committee will be composed of 15 housing stakeholders, including Indigenous communities, people with lived experience, seniors, students and other equity-seeking groups.
On November 1, B.C.’s Minister of Housing tabled Bill 44 to help accelerate the construction of new housing. The Housing Statutes Amendment Act would require municipalities to plan their zoning process in advance to allow densification, by adapting their long-term urban development plans to housing needs forecasts and updating their zoning bylaws every 5 years. In addition, municipalities must designate Transit Oriented Development (TOD) areas where upzoning would allow for buildings of up to 20 stories high near transit stations. Upzoning requirements are further supported by measures to fast-track development approvals and funding, by allowing municipalities to use development charges to fund part of the public infrastructure needed for housing development, for example. The province will be releasing a manual in December to support municipalities in the process, and has also announced that it will provide standardized home designs to guide developers in adapting new building forms to upzoning requirements.
On November 27, the Office of the Federal Housing Advocate released an observational report on Inuit housing, following the Advocate’s meetings with northern communities last year. The report states that the housing conditions in which Inuit communities live are a direct violation of their right to housing. There is a serious shortage of housing in Nunavut and Nunatsiavut, and a high incidence of poverty and homelessness. In addition, access to basic services and proper heating and ventilation are crucially lacking, due to the prohibitive costs of construction and repairs in remote areas. Finally, overcrowding, and the lack of accessible and culturally adequate housing were other prevalent issues the Advocate discussed with community members and leaders. The report recognizes that these issues are rooted in the histories of colonial violence and forced displacements of Indigenous communities, coupled with chronic underfunding of northern communities. The report also provides recommendations developed jointly with Inuit leaders to ensure that the right to housing of Inuit communities is upheld. These recommendations aim to empower Inuit governing entities, and include proposals such as transferring jurisdiction and funding of Inuit housing programs to Inuit governments, creating an independent Ombudsman for Inuit housing, and taking into consideration the climate realities of Arctic Canada, amongst other measures.
A court case brought by a Whitehorse resident in January 2021 could set a legal precedent in the application of the territory’s Safer Communities and Neighbourhoods (SCAN) Act. The Act allows landlords to bypass regulations around evictions contained in the Residential Landlord and Tenant Act, by permitting short-notice evictions when illegal or disruptive activities are suspected to happen on the property. With SCAN evictions, an inspection is first carried out by a SCAN unit, before tenants are issued a 5-day eviction notice, which they can only challenge in court. During the hearing before the Supreme Court of Yukon on November 10, lawyers on the case argued that the SCAN Act is unconstitutional and violates the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Chief Justice Suzanne Ducan has yet to rule on the legality of the SCAN Act.
On November 21, 2023, the federal government released its 2023 Fall Economic Statement (FES), which included announcements of several new housing initiatives. Of particular note were the announcements of new funding for affordable housing, and measures to support the enforcement of commercial short-term rental regulation. These initiatives are welcome, but a lot more is needed to address the housing crisis and realize the right to housing for everyone in Canada. Here we highlight what the major housing announcements in the government’s 2023 FES means for affordable rental housing.
New funding for affordable housing
Canada is in an escalating housing affordability crisis. A recent study shows that to meet current and projected housing needs, over the next decade Canada needs to build:
1 million new public, non-profit, and co-operative rental homes.
3 million other new homes that are affordable to very low and low income households.
2 million new homes that are affordable to moderate and median income households.
We are pleased that the government has announced new funding in its FES to build 7,000 more public, non-profit, and co-operative homes over the next five years. These are the types of housing that are affordable to those most in need in Canada. We hope this will be only the first step, as 7,000 homes represents a tiny fraction of the 1 million such homes that Canada needs.
We are disappointed that the government has not announced any other funding to build more affordable homes. Instead, while $1 billion will be spent on those 7,000 homes, an additional $15 billion will be spent to finance construction of homes that are not affordable to the people who need them. This approach is based on a theory called “filtering,” which posits that building new unaffordable housing frees up affordable housing for the people who need it. The evidence shows that filtering is not a meaningful method for producing affordable rental housing.. In reality, it takes up to 40 years for new unaffordable supply to produce meaningful benefits. In fact, in some cases, building new unaffordable homes actually raises the costs of existing homes.
We urge the government to dramatically increase investments in genuinely affordable housing in both the public and private sectors.
Supporting the enforcement of commercial short-term rental regulation
Building new affordable homes is only one part of what is needed to tackle the housing crisis in Canada. We also need to do a better job of preserving the affordable homes we already have. Currently, for every affordable home being built, two are being lost.
One major cause of the disappearance of affordable homes is the surge in commercial short-term rentals (STRs), which has taken much-needed supply out of the rental market. Investors are taking homes off the market to rent them to tourists instead of to long-term renters. In British Columbia, for example, STRs were responsible for 19.8% of the rent increases which households experienced in a two-year period. Municipal and provincial governments have started to recognize the extent of the problem, and to enact regulations that limit commercial STRs.
In response to this problem, the government has announced that it will deny income tax deductions for expenses incurred to earn income through illegal STRs. More importantly, the government has announced $50 million in funding to support municipalities in enforcing STR regulations. This is a welcome initiative because municipalities often do not have the resources to adequately enforce these regulations. The funding will be available to municipalities with strict regulatory regimes that are having a significant and measurable impact in returning short-term rentals back to the long-term housing market. We are pleased to see the federal government taking on a leadership role in the fight to keep affordable homes available to be lived in, and through an evidence-based approach.
Canada is also losing affordable homes to demolition and redevelopment. Municipalities have recognized this problem too, and have started to enact demolition control and rental replacement rules requiring that developers who demolish affordable homes must replace them with the same number of new affordable homes. Municipalities are also buying buildings at risk of redevelopment and turning them into public and non-profit housing. We urge the federal government to also take a leadership role in supporting and funding these initiatives.
Finally, Canada is steadily losing affordable homes to excessive rent increases. Across Canada, rent regulations are weak or nonexistent and do not adequately protect renters. Every province and territory must take action. We urge the federal government to take a leadership role and support the implementation of genuine, effective rent regulation across Canada.
New protections for homeowners facing eviction, but not for renters
Renters and homeowners alike are struggling with their housing costs, and face eviction when they fall behind on rent or mortgage payments. To protect housing security and respect the right to housing, eviction must always be treated as a last resort. Instead, every day people across Canada continue to be evicted unnecessarily when reasonable alternative measures could be taken to resolve issues.
We are pleased that the federal government has announced new rules to protect homeowners from unnecessary eviction through foreclosures. Banks will be required to work with struggling homeowners to provide tailored relief and ensure payments are reasonable, and to “proactively reach out to vulnerable borrowers and make full use of available tools to quickly and efficiently support borrowers through difficult times.” We urge the government to ensure that the new rules require that banks treat eviction as a last resort.
We also urge the federal government to take a leadership role in providing the same protections against eviction to renters. The majority of people facing housing insecurity in Canada are renters. Provincial laws currently do not treat eviction as a last resort, and all too often, struggling renters lose their homes without being given an opportunity to catch up on their rent. Many of these renters will face housing insecurity and even homelessness as a result. The eviction crisis must end, for renters as well as homeowners.
More action is needed to address affordability
While the government has taken some bold steps towards realizing the right to housing for all people in Canada, much more still needs to be done.
We need to build affordable homes on a whole new scale.
We need to protect existing affordable homes from loss to redevelopments and rent increases as well as to STRs.
We need to start treating eviction as a last resort.
In its FES, the federal government has taken a few steps towards these necessary goals. We hope that it will take many more. We continue to advocate for greater involvement of all levels of government to act with urgency to solve Canada’s housing crisis.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Toronto, ON – November 22, 2023 – On National Housing Day, the Canadian Centre for Housing Rights launched the Secure Homes for Renters Campaign to urge all provincial and territorial governments to implement strong rent regulations so that renters have fair rents and basic protections to live securely in their homes.
Rent regulations should be a basic protection afforded to every renter, but the current regulations that are in place vary widely across the country, and none of them adequately protect renters from excessive rent increases. For example, in half of the country – Alberta, New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nunavut, and Northwest Territories – landlords do not need a reason to raise rents, and rents can be raised by any amount, even if the landlords’ costs have not increased. In other provinces – like Ontario, British Columbia, and Quebec – varying rules exist for calculating allowable rent increases, but the formulae used are broken and allow excessive, unreasonable increases. In some provinces, landlords are also incentivized to evict renters because the rules make it easier to raise rents for new renters.
In the absence of strong laws that regulate rent, landlords are free to charge rents far higher than what is necessary to cover their expenses and make a reasonable profit. This is known as rent gouging, and it’s causing rents to climb excessively. As a result, the cost of rental housing has increased rapidly over the past decade, and right now, half of renters are worried about being able to pay their rent. Recent polls show that increasing rental costs and the lack of affordable rental housing is a serious concern for 95% of Canadians.
“Today the reality that tenants face is worse than last year. Affordability challenges are growing with the continued lack of affordable housing, the rise in the cost of other consumer goods like food, and the impacts of inflation on households’ ability to keep a roof over their heads. People cannot afford to keep up.” said Annie Hodgins, CCHR’s Executive Director. “It’s time for our governments to re-engage with the role they once played supporting a healthy housing system that protects renters.”
Renter households as a group are more vulnerable to housing insecurity than homeowners. Rent regulation is a quick and cost-effective way that provincial and territorial governments can protect housing affordability and security for renters across Canada.
CCHR is encouraging people across Canada to send a letter to their Premier and minister responsible for housing, asking that they immediately implement strong rent regulation measures to help protect renters’ homes and curb rising unaffordability.
“All renters in Canada have the right to fair rents. It shouldn’t matter which province or territory they live in, but right now, it does.” said Hodgins. “This must change. Implementing strong rent regulations in every province and territory is a critical way we can keep more people housed in this very challenging economic climate and ensure that all renters have basic protections in their homes.”
Media contact: Shelley Buckingham Director of Communications, Canadian Centre for Housing Rights Email: media [at] housingrightscanada.com
The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
The oral hearings for Canada’s first human rights review panel on the financialization of purpose-built rental housing began on October 23, 2023, after the panel received 194 written submissions from stakeholders across the country. During the first week, the panel heard from the Federal Housing Advocate, experts on the impacts of financialization, and organizations with expertise on human rights and the right to adequate housing. CCHR joined fellow experts to elaborate on our submission detailing the impacts of the financialization of purpose-built rental housing on tenants across Canada, to answer questions, and to recommend solutions to address financialization.
On October 5, housing advocates across the country joined a National Day of Action organized by the Social Housing and Human Rights initiative, calling on the federal government to invest in social housing. Rallies for the Day of Action took place in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Vancouver, Mount Pearl, Victoria and Thunder Bay. Advocates made a unified call urging the federal government to act on its legal obligation to fulfill the right to housing by investing in a minimum of 30,000 new social housing units annually over 10 years, where rents are no more than 30% of household income in perpetuity. They also urged the government to invest in the acquisition, construction, operation, and maintenance of new and existing public, non-profit, and cooperative-owned housing that meets the unique and varied requirements of people experiencing core housing need and homelessness. Advocates emphasized that these measures are necessary to combat the loss of affordable housing which is happening at an alarming rate for various reasons, including because existing properties are not being maintained or because operating agreements for funding are expiring.
In a news conference this month, Housing Minister Sean Fraser said that more housing measures will be revealed in the fall fiscal update. Some of the expected measures include tying federal infrastructure spending to housing outcomes in local communities, more policies geared toward increasing the stock of social housing and increasing workers’ skills and innovation in the construction industry. He said that there will also be measures to address financialization of housing. On the issue of short-term rentals, Minister Fraser said that the federal government could discourage short-term rentals through federal tax rules and could make federal funding for other levels of government conditional on those governments also taking steps to discourage short-term rentals. The federal government has started reaching deals with some municipalities as part of the Housing Accelerator Fund, and Minister Fraser said the government is prioritizing funding to cities that are proposing the most ambitious policies to address the housing crisis, such as ending exclusionary zoning and using municipal lands to build more housing.
According to a report analyzing rental listings across Canada, the national average asking price for rent in September 2023 was $2,149, which represents an increase of more than 11% from 2022. Toronto and Vancouver still have the most expensive rents in Canada, but other major Canadian cities are catching up, such as Calgary which witnessed an increase of 13% to the asking rent for one and two bedrooms.
Nova Scotia’s Housing Minister announced the province’s housing plan which will entail spending $1 billion over the next five years to help increase housing supply. Many of the initiatives in the plan are a continuation of previously announced programs, such as low-interest loans to help non-profit groups purchase and maintain affordable housing. New measures include a “backyard suite” incentive program. Nova Scotia currently faces a shortage of 27,300 units, spiraling housing costs, and one of the fastest growing populations in Canada. The plan has been criticized for lacking a definition of affordable rent or mortgage, clear commitments to build publicly owned and operated housing, and clear goals.
Toronto City Council has voted to increase the City’s vacant home tax from 1% to 3% amid the growing housing crisis. Council also approved a motion to direct at least $10 million of any additional revenue from the tax increase to a City housing program that will provide grants to non-profit housing operators to buy rental housing from the private market. The vacant home tax was first introduced in December 2021, with the goal of making more units available on the rental market. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said during the spring by-election that the city wants to use revenues from the tax to fund the creation of affordable housing and the purchase of older buildings to protect affordable housing. City staff say that revenues amounted to $54 million after the first full year of the tax and are projected to be $105 million for 2025 after the increase is implemented.
The City of Toronto has released a staff report which outlines recommended actions for strengthening Toronto’s housing system and addressing the needs of low- and middle-income households. The report is in response to City Council’s direction to develop a plan to approve 25,000 rent-controlled units, in addition to the units that are already planned in the City’s 10-year housing plan, bringing the total up to 65,000 rent-controlled homes by 2030. The report also includes five proposed sites where the City will act as a public builder, meaning that it will lead all aspects of the delivery of these sites. Mayor Olivia Chow is hoping that the recommended actions will allow 21,000 homes to be built within three years. The recommendations are contingent on significant financial investment from the provincial and federal governments. The recommendations in the report also include requesting the federal and provincial government to make legislative changes that will incentivize private developers to include more affordable rental units in their developments and prevent renovictions. The report was adopted by the Executive Committee on October 31, 2023, and will be considered by Toronto City Council on November 8, 2023.
The Government of Quebec and the Government of Canada reached an agreement under which the federal government will provide the province with $900 million under the Housing Acceleration Fund (HAF), which the province has pledged to match for a total of $1.8 billion. Quebec’s National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion pledging it would spend all this funding on non-market housing options over the next five years, including co-operative housing, low-income housing, and subsidized housing. Although housing advocates say the Assembly’s motion is a good sign, they will take the government’s promise seriously once it lays out its spending priorities.
British Columbia has put in place new legislation to help municipalities regulate short-term rentals. Short-term rentals are contributing to the housing crisis by affecting the availability and prices of long-term rental housing, and according to the province, they are now at an all-time high. The legislation limits short-term rentals to within a host’s home, or a basement suite or laneway home on the property where they reside. It also includes stronger enforcement provisions such as increased fines, the creation of a provincial enforcement unit, and a requirement that short-term rental platforms such as Airbnb share data with municipalities to improve local enforcement. Although some municipalities such as Vancouver already have strict rules on short-term rentals, they are struggling to enforce them and are welcoming the support from the province to help tackle this issue. Fairbnb Canada said the legislation had the potential to set a new standard for short-term rental regulation in Canada, and that it would monitor the development of fines for platform accountability. The announcement came a month after a new study from McGill University was published, which shows that short-term rentals eat up 19% of the available rental housing stock in the province and contribute to a 16% increase in rent prices.
The Government of Canada and the Qikiqtani Inuit Association (QIA) are working together to invest nearly $30 million to construct 21 new housing units in Nunavut, as part of the federal government’s Rapid Housing Initiative. All rentals will include affordable and accessible units that will be designated for Indigenous residents and women. QIA President Olayuk Akesuk emphasized the need for continued investment towards improving the infrastructure gap in Canada’s Arctic and addressing the housing needs of Inuit communities in Nunavut.
The latest developments in housing policy from across Canada:
The Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) released an update to its Supply Gaps Estimate report of last year. The report estimates how many new homes need to be built in Canada by 2030 to restore housing affordability to 2004 levels. Last year, CMHC estimated that 3.5 million homes will still be needed, over and above what is already projected to be built by 2030. In its update, CMHC found that the gap this year is still 3.5 million homes.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a series of measures to increase the supply of rental housing and tackle inflation on food prices. A core measure proposed is the removal of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) on new rental construction. Bill C-56, An Act to amend the Excise Tax Act and the Competition Act, was tabled by the Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland and passed its first reading at Parliament on September 21. The bill increases the GST rental rebate from 36% to 100% to incentivize the construction of apartment buildings, student housing and senior residences. According to the Department of Finance Canada, this will provide homebuilders with a $25,000 tax relief on apartments valued at $500,000, and the initiative is expected to cost $4.5 billion between now and 2029. The rebate will be available to buildings with at least 4 apartments or 10 private rooms, as long as at least 90% of the units are used for long-term rental. The federal government has called on all provincial governments to apply the exemption to the provincial portion of the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST).
On September 13, London, Ontario became the first municipality to secure $74 million from the federal government’s Housing Accelerator Fund, to speed up the development of 2,000 housing units over the next three years, on top of the 9,000 already planned. The funding is flexible, and London’s mayor indicated it might be used for increasing water and sewage capacity, incentivizing private landowners to convert office space into residences, create low barrier service hubs, and build 600 supportive housing units.
The agreement is the first of many that require municipalities to end exclusionary zoning in order to receive the funds. At the end of August, the City of London voted to increase density in residential areas without the need for re-zoning, and similar conditions were laid out in letters sent by the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities to the cities of Calgary, Brampton, and Halifax. Applications are being reviewed for Windsor and Saskatoon.
New land-use regulations voted at Halifax Regional Council in February came into effect on September 1st. In residential zones, single room and entire unit short-term rentals are now only permitted if the owner lives in the home. Basement apartments and backyard suites may not be rented for fewer than 28 days. The objective of these regulations is to allow for more rental accommodation in the Halifax market.
On September 21, the City of Toronto shared a progress report regarding its housing action plan. The implementation of the HousingTO 2020-2030 Action Plan has so far allowed the completion of 1,082 affordable and supportive homes for those experiencing homelessness and expediting approvals for 3,340 new homes. Furthermore, the City has committed $46 million in funding through the Multi-Unit Residential Acquisition (MURA) program, to help non-profit organizations acquire and secure 260 affordable rental homes. Other progress includes the administration of 3,300 housing benefits to help individuals maintain their current homes and the launching of new digital dashboards to help track accountability and transparency.
According to a recent report from Quebec’s Health Department, visible homelessness increased by 44% across the province between 2018 and 2022. The survey counted close to 10,000 people living on the streets or in shelters, half of which were in Montreal. However, the report also finds that the proportion of people experiencing homelessness in Montreal is in decline, and the increase in homelessness felt across the province is happening around secondary cities and in rural areas. While the report does not account for hidden homelessness, it recognizes that its incidence might be higher than visible homelessness. During the Union des municipalités du Québec (UMQ) Summit on Homelessness, the Minister of Social Services Lionel Carmant announced that a new homelessness count would take place in 2024 and promised an additional $15 million to fund emergency shelters. Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand, along with Montreal Mayor Valerie Plante and several community organizations, stated that this pledge was not enough to address the homelessness crisis happening in Quebec.
Manitobans will be heading to the polls on October 3rd for the province’s general election, and affordable housing remains a top issue for 20% of voters.
The NDP’s pledge for housing in Manitoba includes bringing the renters’ tax credit from $525 to $700, limiting landlord’s ability to apply for above-guideline rent increases, and developing a regulatory process to ensure affordability is maintained when a non-profit or co-operative tries to sell buildings that were designed to be affordable housing. Meanwhile, the PC’s housing platform focuses on removing land transfer taxes for first-time homeowners, helping senior homeowners defer their property taxes and investing in housing developments for homeless veterans.
Between September 14-16, the City of Calgary held public hearings and debated on the recommendations issued in June by the Housing and Affordability Task Force. More than 150 people signed up to depute at City Council, and a majority of written submissions urged the municipal government to adopt all of the Task Force’s recommendations. One of the more controversial recommendations is a proposal for blanket rezoning citywide to create more density and housing diversity. Pressure mounted after the Minister of Housing, Infrastructure and Communities Sean Fraser sent a letter to the City of Calgary, requesting the adoption of the proposed new zoning designations in order for the City to receive funding from the Housing Accelerator Fund. Evidence from the City’s 2023 Housing Needs Assessment was also echoed during the deliberations, citing how the housing crisis is affecting a wide range of Calgarians, with 1 in 5 households who cannot afford their housing costs. At the conclusion of the 3-day meeting, Council voted 12-3 for the adoption of the City’s new housing strategy, “Home is Here.” The strategy aims to build 4,000 new homes every year, of which 75% would be non-market affordable housing units. In addition to zoning changes that remain to be discussed later this year, the amended strategy proposes to increase affordable supply through incentives for the development of secondary suites and transferring publicly-owned land for non-profit housing and emergency shelters.
During a news conference on September 11, B.C. Premier David Eby unveiled details of the province’s Secondary Suite Incentive Program, voted in the 2023 budget. This initiative aims to finance the construction of 3,000 secondary suites through forgivable loans of up to $40,000 to cover 50% of construction costs. Rent for these secondary suites must be priced below market rates for five years, and secondary units cannot be rented to immediate family members. However, the $120 million incentive program is geared toward higher income homeowners, with stipulations such as providing enough equity as loan security, property value worth more than $2 million, and household income of over $209,000.
At the same news conference, the province’s Premier also announced the launch of the Single Housing Application Service (SHAS), a one-stop shop to expedite housing permit applications and eliminate the need for multiple applications across different ministries. The SHAS will be administered through staff of the Water, Land and Resource Stewardship, who will act as a single point of contact for permitting decisions. The province has also promised $61 million in funding to help municipalities accelerate development application approvals and meet the new provincial zoning requirements to be revealed later this fall.
On September 7, Victoria City Council voted to allocate $2.5 million from revenues collected through taxation on online short-term rental platforms, such as Airbnb, to fund an affordable workforce housing project destined to house hospitality workers. The project will be developed by the Greater Victoria Housing Society for a total of $18 million, most of which will be funded by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). Other municipalities in B.C. have implemented similar measures to preserve their rental housing stock against the conversion of apartments into tourist accommodation. A study from McGill University shows that short-term rentals eat up 19% of the available rental housing stock in the province and contribute to a 16% increase in rent prices. Fairbnb is calling for stronger legislation on short-term rentals, to ensure they remain a form of home-sharing and proposes to establish a province-wide registry to ensure transparency and accountability.
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