The Ontario legislature facing the never-ending housing crisis witnessed toady a heated exchange between the Opposition and the conservative government during question period.
Responding to a question from Ottawa Vanier Liberal MPP, Lucille Collard, the Attorney General (AG) of Ontario, Doug Downey who is responsible of Tribunals Ontario which oversee the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) accused the “previous government” – the Liberals who were in power from 2003 to 2018 – to have not invested in the LTB thus leaving the conservatives to “pick up the pieces”.
According to Doug Downey, the current government has “invested 28 million dollars in a state-of-the-art system, that is up and running and is receiving applications in the tens of thousands”. The AG also said that they hired “more adjudicators in the history of the Board and put up 4.5 million dollars to speed up the process. ”
As for the MPP request to have a “hybrid model” – hearings online and in person – Doug Downey did not respond but praised the current online system that he says was “created by an NDP government in British Columbia”.
The delays at the LTB are hurting the landlords and tenants in Ontario. This is a contributing factor to the housing crisis as many small housing providers – after waiting for a resolution up to 10 months and loosing tens of thousands of dollars in unpaid rent and damages – have decided to exit the rental industry in Ontario or leaving their properties empty. This contributes the reduction of the rental stock while the demand keeps rising.
