Today the Ontario Government announced that they’re making an additional $1.4 million investment in the Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board. This funding will be in addition to the $4.5 million previously announced. The release goes on to say that this new money will allow the board to “hire over 35 additional operational staff” to fight the current backlog of cases.
Also, the announcement refers to the creation of a “a centre of excellence.” it isn’t clear what this will do or how it might make the LTB more efficient. Previously, the ministry of the Attorney General (who oversees the LTB) unfortunately chose the LTB as the first tribunal to upgrade their digital case management systems. This move almost certainly added to the current backlog, leaving SOLO members to further suffer from deadbeat tenants. We still see that the LTB is working out challenges of this case management system when this could have happened at a smaller tribunal where the effect wouldn’t have been so extreme. These missteps are destroying lives.
Here at SOLO, we welcome the investment news. Adding more support staff will yield returns in efficiencies and likely result in faster processing times. Anything we can do to end this backlog needs to happen immediately.
While we do need more urgency for our members who have been waiting upwards of a year to see hearings for non-paying tenants, we are pleased that the government has taken notice. The overarching goal is to remove the extreme backlog and return to the LTBs basic service standards. In addition to this, a major review of the LTB and the Residential Tenancies Act needs to take place so this never happens again.
SOLO is working tirelessly for landlords and does so at no cost to our members. We believe the last thing suffering landlords need is another bill. Solo is a federally registered non-profit organization that receives no public funds. SOLO activities are funded by voluntary contributions from small landlords. If you want to contribute please check here.
