In a webinar stakeholders meeting, via zoom on December 13th, 2023, the Landlords and Tenants Board (LTB) management welcomed over 250 interested parties to update on the “progress report” and the plan for the 2024 year.
The Tribunals Ontario Executive Director Sean Weir, said they have made “tremendous progress this year but are under no illusion that we are not near where we need to be for service delivery and backlog reduction” . While the target of 7,000 cases across the Tribunals has been achieved in 2023, a more ambitious goal of 9,000 is planned for 2024 to “substantially reduce the backlog by year end 2024”
The LTB Executive Director Harry Gustopoulos spoke about access to justice through public terminal, technical support and video guide to complete the LTB digital first mantra. Accommodation for in person hearing are still available based on specific criteria. Mira Gamsa gave more information regarding the Tribunal Ontario Portal (TOP) launched in December 2021 and have received over 145,000 applications with over 3,000 self scheduling in November 2023 alone. In 2024, the portal will be enhanced with L2 validations, increased account size for files, search and redesigned landing page.
The Associate Chair Ian Speirs gave an update on the adjudicator recruitments. By the end of November 2023, the LTB had 69 full time and 61 part time adjudicators. New recruitments are in the work. Adjudicators training is intensive and most orders are issued within 30 days of hearing but there is an “ongoing work with adjudicators to improve the timelines”. In July 2023, Adjudicator Case Conference (ACC) were introduced to manage complex tenants applications which resulted in 64% closures. L1 and L9 are still being scheduled within 4 to 5 months while urgent matters are within 4 to 5 weeks of grant. In 2024, all applications types will be scheduled weekly and there will be increase of tenants, L2 and L10 blocks.
Lindiwe Bridgewater the acting registrar announced a staffing action on an urgent basis to address operational needs. New technology was introduced to make it easier for the clients to navigate the IVR (Interactive Voice Recording) including wait time, call back feature. One centralized email was introduced. In 2024 there will be option for the Tenants Duty Counsel (TDC) to access files and streamlining notice of hearing (NOH) as well as expanding Service Ontario services for LT applications.
In the Q&A session, the LTB management confirmed that they are bound by the Residential Tenant Act (RTA) which regulates their operations and only the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing (MMAH) can initiate a legislative change. For example responding to a question why can’t uncontested non payment be expedited through a paper review, they responded that they are bound to conduct a hearing even for non payment of rent which consist the majority of the backlog and application cases. Several questions were about the portal and were answered.
In conclusion, the LTB recognized that in their view “progress was made” and they are “working in tackling the delays and allocating resources to reduce the backlog” and Sean Weir concluded that he does not accept that “the LTB is broken” as “we are trying very hard with 84,000 applications a year, we are having very significant delays but we are going to fix the issues”
