Ontario Rent Rollback

Whereas the Ontario government proclaimed on June 17, 1998, the Tenant Protecton Act; and

Whereas, on April 3, 1995, at the Toronto Star Leader's debate, Mike Harris publicly stated, "The current rent control program is not working very well for tenants. We want to bring in a rent control program that will truly protect tenants and give them lower rents. We will replace nothing until we have a superior plan in place proven to work better"; and

Whereas, on November 21, 1996, when Al Leach, the Ontario Minister of Housing introduced the Tenant Protection Act, he made questionable public claims such as: "Tenants will continue to enjoy the many other valuable protections to which they been entitled for many years," "we are moving from a system that protects the apartment to a system that protects the individual," and "this legislation represents a crucial step in creating a climate where the private market will invest in rental real estate" ; and

Whereas, the housing minister made repeated claims the changes would lead to the construction of huge amounts of private sector rental housing, such as his claim in a June 13, 1997, Toronto Star article: "Revamping Ontario's rent control system will spur developers to begin building 10,000 new rental units in Metro within two years, says Housing Minister Al Leach," which have been proven to be false; and

Whereas, in the four years following proclamation of the Act, rents have risen dramtically with average one-bedroom rents rising over 22\% in Toronto, 24\% in Ottawa and 16\% in Hamilton; and

Whereas, 44\% of tenant households spend more than 30\% of their income on rent, and 22\% spend more half their income; and

Whereas, evictions have skyrocketted due to rising rents and the Tenant Protection Act, with some 60,000 eviction applications filed per year; and

Whereas, these large rises in rent have led to dramatically decreased disposable incomes, leading to increased poverty, disruption of families, and of communities; and

Whereas, most of the private sector rental housing units in Ontario, having been "Vacancy decontrolled", that is having had a turn over in tenants and under the Tenant Protection Act therefore receiving at least one rent increase not limited by the law; and

Whereas, a rent freeze in Ontario will be of little or no help to the majority of private sector rental units which have been vacancy decontrolled, which have received rent increases of $100, $200 and even $300 above the rents that existed prior;

Therefore let it be resolved that we the undersigned call on the Ontario government to repeal the Tenant Protection Act, bring back the rent registry, and to roll back all rents to the level they were on June 16, 1998, the day before the Tenant Protection Act, was proclaimed as law.