The N.S. government won't release a report on tenancy enforcement. Opposition politicians are concerned

For years, tenants and landlords have decried the lack of enforcement within Nova Scotia's residential tenancies program. The province doesn't have an arm to regulate disputes or levy fines, which both sides say is a problem. 

Issues like landlords demanding illegal deposits and increasing rent above the province's rent cap, or tenants failing to pay their rent must go through a residential tenancies hearing and those decisions can only be enforced through small claims court.

Advocates on both sides say the process is cumbersome and can take months. 

Other provinces, like B.C. and Ontario, have enforcement systems for landlords and tenants in which trained officers can advise parties on disputes and have the power to issue fines.

In November 2022, the Houston government began to look into the issue, hiring Halifax-based Davis Pier Consulting to study Ontario's enforcement system. The consultants were tasked to come up with a comprehensive program design detailing the scope, structure and costs of implementing something similar in Nova Scotia.

The report was delivered to the province but it won't release it publicly, causing concern among opposition politicians. 

"I don't see any excuse in them not releasing that report," Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender said in an interview Tuesday.

"If that report says, 'Don't do it,' it would be good to understand why. If that report says that they should do it, then I think that would be vindication for a lot of people who have been fighting for it and would help us to understand the best way forward."

Colton LeBlanc, the minister responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act, confirmed to CBC News in May that his department had received the report.

CBC News requested a copy but a spokesperson for the department declined, saying: "We will release the details of the report publicly when we are in a position to do so."

CBC News then filed a request to obtain the report through freedom of information laws, which was denied on the grounds that the entire report is "advice by or for a public body or minister."

CBC News has appealed the decision not to release the report, but Nova Scotia's information and privacy commissioner said last month that her office doesn't have the resources or the authority to do its job properly and is dealing with a four-year backlog of cases. 

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the province said they anticipate the report will be released in the fall. 

'They don't have a plan'

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said he is concerned that the report not being released shows the government doesn't know what to do next. 

"They won't even release this report, which taxpayers funded," Churchill said in an interview Tuesday. 

"And that makes me very concerned that they don't have a plan on this really important issue that's affecting thousands of Nova Scotians."

The previous Liberal government did not act on the enforcement issue, though they did introduce the temporary rent cap in 2020 to protect renters during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The current Progressive Conservative government campaigned against rent controls, but has since extended the cap to the end of 2025, although it will rise to five per cent in 2024.

Churchill said the need for residential tenancy enforcement has grown over time. 

"We didn't have the same issues at the time," he said. "We didn't expect the population boom over the two COVID years. That certainly has put additional pressure on the housing market and we're in a very different situation right now with our rent cap in place, with housing starts down, and with a vacancy rate under one per cent."

Other housing reports still not released

Opposition politicians and Nova Scotians in need of housing have been waiting for the PC government to release its housing strategy for months. 

Housing Minister John Lohr had previously said the strategy would be released this past spring, and provincial officials told CBC News in May that the long-awaited strategy would be coming "in a few weeks." 

But spring has come and gone and the strategy has yet to be released.

"This government has made it clear that they don't really think Nova Scotians deserve to understand why they make the choices they do," Chender said. "I think that's a huge problem and this is the latest place where that's shown up."

The province is also sitting on the housing needs assessment it commissioned in February 2022 that was due back to government by the end of 2022.

It was meant to provide a detailed portrait of Nova Scotia's housing crisis and make recommendations to politicians and bureaucrats about how to respond to housing needs in each community.

"We have a housing situation that's getting worse in Nova Scotia, and the government has potentially three reports that they're hiding from the public," Churchill said. 

"This is one of the biggest issues affecting people right now. And at the very least, we should see what these reports say."