The Small Ownership Landlords Ontario Inc. was present today Wednesday January 26th as intervener at the Ontario 2022 Budget consultations for the tens of thousands of Small landlords through Ontario.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ontario government engaged a series of consultations to help with the ongoing response to fight the virus. And as many landlords knows, this pandemic has gravely impacted Solo landlords with the Landlords and Tenants Board (LTB) delays, shutdowns and the ever increasing rental costs and frustration to be a good landlord in Ontario.
According to the government website the prebudget consultation is about “Building on extensive consultations throughout 2021, and as part of the plan to protect our progress while building Ontario, we will continue to seek ideas on economic recovery and how we can continue supporting people and businesses across the province leading up to the spring 2022 Budget.”
SOLO presented a written submission to outline its position on how the new budget can incorporate SOLO landlords concerns namely the LTB delays and the massive financial losses due to the inability to cut losses due to non paying tenants. SOLO stressed that although every sector of the economy received massive aid SOLO landlords got nothing and are falling through government neglect and facing significant financial and emotional losses impacting the rental market in Ontario
Boubah, SOLO Landlords chair made a virtual presentation to the panel of Members of Provincial Parliaments (MPPs) and the message was loud and clear: Ontario landlords want to work with the current and future government to help alleviate the barriers to affordable housing. Among the measures that SOLO requested are:
- Provide financial assistance for all verifiable unpaid rent owing to small landlords who have been impacted by the LTB delays.
- In the alternative, the province should provide comparable financial assistance to small landlords as it did to commercial landlords.
- Payment of a portion of unpaid rent owing to small landlords directly to landlords for tenants that qualify for this type of support.
- Any of these measures would allow the LTB to work through its backlog in a more expeditious manner and would have the added benefit of removing the adversarial position that small landlords and their tenants are facing as a result of COVID.
These issues reasoned well to the audience and several Members of Parliaments on all sides asked questions.
- Dave Smith, MPP (Progressive Conservative) who started by stating that the NDP always believes that “landlords are greedy”. Clearly Dave does not share that sentiment. He asked Boubah about the hardships experienced by small landlords and the challenges presented by the LTB due to delay and the board’s processes. And Boubah gave several poignant examples of hardship and suggested to read the landlords stories on SOLO website.
- Ian Arthur, MPP (NDP) – Ian stated: There are good landlords and bad tenants – and bad landlords and good tenants – and the LTB does not help anyone. He asked Boubah to talk about the LTB. He also stated that in his view support for small landlords is reasonable and that the government needs to take action re the LTB backlog – because it is – and will – deter people from becoming landlords. Boubah clarified that small landlords have no financial support whatsoever unlike every other sector of the economy.
- Mitzie Hunter, MPP (Liberal) She asked what financial assistance could be given to tenants that would assist in alleviating the problems Boubah spoke about. She was informed that while tenants received all kind of financial assistance by virtue of being employees, on assistance, self employed and rent banks, Solo landlords got none of those
- Logan Kanapathi, MPP (Conservative) He asked about what problems small landlords are having – which allowed Boubah to talk again about the LTB and the issues there.
The consultation ended with an eye opener for the budget committee to see the issues facing Ontario landlords that can be resolved
