Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In my Member’s statement today, I cited concerns with the Residential Tenancies Act, so I think we could probably dispose of my question very quickly if the Minister is agreeable to a review of the act.
Specifically, I highlighted concerns about fair rental protection measures for hardworking families, a rental officer office that has very little authority or teeth to be able to enforce. The Minister needs to call forward a discussion group between landlords and advocates, to ensure that processes work better when it comes to things like evictions or compromises.
The last issue I want to highlight, complaints that are brought forward to the rentals officer. Quite often the complainants have zero support and are left at an unfair advantage when they do take their courses of action against landlords.
Citing all four of those concerns plus many more I’m sure I can provide today, would the Minister of Justice be willing to open up the Residential Tenancies Act for review and call for some public discussion from groups that should be involved in the evolution and certainly in the creation of a better, stronger act? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister of Justice, Mr. Abernethy.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. In response to the annual report of the rental officer and questions raised in the House, the department undertook a review of the act through a contractor here in Yellowknife, and information about the review and the issues that were brought up were shared with the Standing Committee on Social Programs in December 2012. The review is based on a series of interviews as well as examinations and other discussions with individuals who had concerns about the Residential Tenancies Act.
Initial consultation work is underway and is going to be completed soon. We expect that we’ll be coming forward with an LP to standing committee in the fall to make revisions to the Residential Tenancies Act. There are eight core issues that have been identified in the report that we’ll be dealing with: securing a tenure in public housing, application of the act to transitional housing, enforcement of orders, unofficial occupants, conversion to public housing, retention of the inspection report, and consistency with the Condominium Act and tenants’ liability and domestic violence. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, that is certainly good news. The issue I think I didn’t hear the Minister speak to is protection for renters. Is there a chance to look at opportunities to create some type of rent protection measure?
As we all know, the act allows landlords to raise the rent once a year, only on that anniversary, but the problem with that is they could raise it to any amount. If your rent is $2,000 and they say, well, let’s raise it to $5,000, which is something legally we can’t stop them from doing, we need to put a check and safety valve on this process. That is what I’m asking for.
Would the Minister be willing to look at that issue and consider it in the update? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is an interesting point. We certainly are willing to have discussion with committee as we bring the LP forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, maybe just one more on the issue of helping complainants bring forward their cause or concerns. When they go to the rental tenancy office, if they are fighting a landlord, quite often, not always, the landlord is well resourced and able to hire a lawyer to fight their perspective, but the little guy or gal who is fighting their cause, for various reasons is under-resourced, and we want a fair hearing.
Would the Minister be willing to look at that type of fairness and find some way to see how we can find our way through this problem? Thank you.
Mr. Speaker, it is an interesting concept. We are certainly willing to have that discussion with the committee as we bring the LP forward. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
