Tenants take to streets of Park Ex to protest Quebec housing bill
'I'm just getting tired of having to pay more and more for nothing,' says protester
Braving the rain and waving banners, protesters gathered on Saturday afternoon in front of Parc Metro station in the Montreal neighbourhood of Parc-Extension to protest the Quebec government's housing bill known as Bill 31.
Amy Darwish, co-ordinator of the Comité d'action de Parc-Extension (CAPE), was one of the protesters.
"This demonstration is happening really at a pivotal point," said Darwish, who wants to see the Quebec government change course with Bill 31, which allows landlords to reject any request for a lease transfer without specifying why — and then cancel the lease.
"It's one of the few ways to keep rents affordable, to keep landlords from drastically increasing the rent between two tenants. It's also a way that tenants can support each other … in the midst of what's become an unprecedented housing crisis," said Darwish.
Although the lease transfer provision of the bill may be one of the most controversial, the bill also contains other provisions the government says protect tenants. If the bill is passed, landlords would be forced to pay evicted tenants up to one month's rent per year of continuous residence in the dwelling.
But Darwish called the proposed changes "cosmetic measures that do not fundamentally restrict evictions in any way."
She said the changes "normalize them by sending the message that if you compensate tenants enough, evictions are actually just — and they aren't."
Retired Park Ex resident Edward Fell was another one of the protesters.
Every year his landlord asks for more than his pension provides, Fell says, and paying what the landlord is asking in full would mean cutting back on basic life necessities.
"That cheque means that I don't get groceries for a month," said Fell.
Last year, his landlord unsuccessfully tried to evict him, and now he's afraid his neighbours — low-income and elderly tenants — may get kicked out of their homes, he says.
Raphaël Bosquet, another protester, says he has gone to court many times to fight rent increases but has come up short every time.
"I've been in Montreal for the past five years, and every year my landlord has raised the price of [rent] as much as they could without doing barely anything," he said.
"I'm just getting tired of having to pay more and more for nothing."
The office of the housing minister told CBC that Bill 31 includes measures that "restore balance between tenants and landlords." In a statement, the ministry said the bill protects tenants against eviction while also increasing the supply of housing units.
"Bill 31 is still being studied by the legislative committee, and other measures will be introduced in the very near future to restore the desired balance in the rental market," it said.
Landlords welcome lease transfer changes but still unhappy
Martin Messier, the president of the Quebec Landlords Association, says he's happy to see more power in rejecting lease transfers, but other provisions in the bill "go too far" in siding with tenants.
"They are making us feel like we're abusing people, which is not the case," he said.
Messier says the bill would shift the burden of proof to landlords in evicting tenants, making it more difficult for landlords to make what he calls "reasonable rent increases" on many properties — some of which are in need of repair — and to turn a profit for investors.
"We're going to be presumed of bad faith when repossessing a unit, reversing the burden of proof. We think that is wrong," said Messier.
WATCH | A breakdown of why Bill 31 is dividing Quebecers
Code of ethics violated
Earlier this week, the province's ethics commissioner ruled that Quebec's housing minister, France-Élaine Duranceau, a former real estate developer, breached the code of ethics for members of the National Assembly when she met with a longtime friend and business partner.
The commissioner concluded that Duranceau gave her former business partner preferential treatment, a situation which, according to the report, contributes to the "undermining of the population's confidence in its institutions even if there are no bad intentions on the part of the elected official."
Despite finding that Duranceau violated the ethics code, the commissioner did not recommend any disciplinary measures.
WATCH | Quebec's housing minister is facing controversy on 2 fronts:
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with files from Erika Morris and Antoni Nerestant