The Ontario government is backing away from a controversial proposal that could have led to the end of rent control certainty in the province.
Housing Minister Rob Flack announced on social media Sunday that Premier Doug Ford’s government would not follow through with planned consultations on Ontario’s long-standing “security of tenure” rules.
“Residents expect stability and predictability in Ontario’s rental market, and now is not the time to consider changes to this system,” Flack said on X. “As such, we have decided not to proceed with consultations on potential changes to month-to-month leases.”
Flack’s statement comes three days after the Ontario government said it was considering policy reforms that would provide landlords with more “flexibility” to control who occupies their units and for how long by allowing them to “adjust tenancy arrangements based on market conditions, personal needs, or business strategies.”
Attorney General Doug Downey said his government was pursuing the consultation plan because it had “heard from stakeholders that these evergreen leases that just go on with no end in sight may not be appropriate.”
The news prompted significant backlash and concern among the province’s tenants, who rely on Ontario’s existing rent control policies for stability.
ACORN Canada launched a letter-writing campaign to oppose the PCs’ “dangerous” plan.
The group said the consultations would be “a move toward fixed-term leases, where the lease simply ends after the set term — rather than automatically renewing month-to-month. This would allow landlords to force tenants out every year or hike rents as high as they want.”
Early in Ford's first term, the PC government removed rent control on any unit first occupied after November 2018. Before that, all rental units in the province were bound by annual rent price increase maximums — meaning tenants’ rent cannot increase more than a few percentage points.
In lieu of consultations on leases, Flack said the government would instead focus on “common sense reforms” to the Landlord and Tenant Board and its policies, many of which ACORN Canada also opposes.
- With files from TorontoToday's Aidan Chamandy