Today SOLO Landlords held an important meeting with Member of Provincial Parliament Kristyn Wong-Tam for Toronto Centre. Among Kristyn’s roles is Official Opposition Critic, Attorney General. Kristyn is a member of the New Democratic Party; a party that had a long history of fighting against violations of rights and negative stigmas. The current situation with small “mom and pop” landlords has gotten much worse with major Ontario Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) backlogs and a generally negative perception of landlords on the media.
Kristyn made it clear that they were working hard to understand more about how the Attorney General is addressing backlogs, “How many cases are backlogged” and “How many adjudicators are being appointed?” These are things that Kristyn is pressing the Government on and working in favour of small landlords. The road of solving these backlogs will come through government pressure and transparency. Pressure with the recent mention of the LTB at question period, asking the Conservative Government to answer for the state of the LTB. We want to continue to see the opposition mention our stories. We at SOLO want to see the investments mentioned by Doug Downey yield actual reductions in backlogs, not just more delays. What they actually do with the money is just as important as spending it.
We talked about non-paying tenants and the accountability for such a scenario. There is a particular focus on how delays embolden non-paying tenants to continue. That everyone deserves swift and consistent access to justice. Also discussed is the challenges landlords have faced with Above the Guideline Increases and how rent control (vacancy decontrol) regulations might affect landlords in this respect. Wong-Tam listened to our concerns and seemed receptive to finding solutions.
We’re grateful for Kristyn’s willingness to keep the conversation going and working to hold the Government of Ontario to account. We’re working hard to find allies in Government and in the Opposition to further our goals of justice in a reasonable timeframe. Justice delayed is justice denied.
We look forward to continuing the conversation. SOLO Landlords advocates for small landlords and does so at no cost to them. SOLO is funded by donations. If you would like to contribute, you can do so here.
