Thank you, Mr. Speaker. This Assembly, like many others, will always try to find a special hallmark to hang its hat when they’re finished their business at the end of their term. Helping the working family would certainly be a highlight of anyone’s career and a certain Assembly. I talked about rent control and my questions are directed to the Minister of Justice, who will be in charge of the overseeing of the Residential Tenancies Act rewrite. Would the Minister be willing to make sure that there is some element in that act that provides protection for renters out there?
Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Minister responsible for Justice, Mr. Lafferty.
Mahsi, Mr. Speaker. The Residential Tenancies Act was passed in June of last year. Right now my department’s working on the regulations within that act itself. There are areas that we need to look at. One area of controlling the rent has a clause in there that once a year they can raise their rent. The Member has alluded to that as well. Those are the areas we will be focusing on.
That certainly puts the average person, whether they’re single income, double income, whatever the case may be, at a significant disadvantage because, as I cited today, they’ve had increases of 16 percent in Yellowknife that have been quite regular over the last few years and certainly have a single example of 33 percent rental increase at an apartment unit. That’s barely affordable if it’s affordable at all. What is the Minister willing to do to put support behind the average family that’s out there trying to rent and get by at the same time?
The thing with the process of having a rental office and rental officer is the main point of contact, if there are disputes from the tenants and the landlords. According to the figures that we have since last year there were no applications made regarding rent increase. If there is such a thing then the rental officer should be notified and in due process they’ll follow through with the tenant as well.
I’m glad the Minister points out that annual report by the rental officer because, I’ll tell you, it doesn’t point to that. He’s quite correct because it’s not under the authority of the rental officer. So how would he monitor, gauge, or deal with anything of that nature? That’s the whole problem. There’s no way to deal with this under the mechanism. If somebody came to the rental officer and said my rent was raised twice within 12 months then the rental officer would have a case to stand on. If somebody came to the rental officer and said the landlord doubled my rent once this year, the rental officer would be forced to say, oh, well. That’s the problem. Would the Justice Minister go back and review this situation and recognize that in many jurisdictions, such as B.C., we have a 3.7 percent cap, in Ontario we have a 1.5 percent cap, and other jurisdictions are recognizing this. Would the Minister go back and review this file and take a look at it from the working family point of view?
This particular issue was before the standing committee and even passed in this House. We are working on regulations. There were a lot of questions from the Members and we took those into consideration and made some amendments to the act itself. Like I said earlier, there are rental officers that deal specifically with the issues or concerns from the tenants. There are certain protocols that they need to follow. There is a process through the rental office.
The Minister is right; there are things the tenant can take to the rental officer, such as the heat wasn’t there, the power wasn’t turned on, maybe my lock was changed. But there’s nothing there about fair rent; fair and reasonable. Yes, I believe a landlord should be able to make a profit. Yes, recognizing that oil and power are going up, those things need to be protected, absolutely. But by raising rent at 33 percent, can the Minister explain to me how that would be considered fair and reasonable and what grounds would a tenant be able to challenge this under the existing rental act? Because there is none. Could the Minister show me how they could challenge that?
If there is an issue with an increase in rent, there is an avenue. The rental officer can deal with that with the tenants. That’s a process that we’ve initiated with the new act in play. Also we’re looking at the regulations. Like I said earlier, there is a process in place. There is a reason why we have a rental office. That’s the avenue that the complaints and issues can be brought forward.
Thank you, Mr. Lafferty. The honourable Member for Kam Lake, Mr. Ramsay.
