Housing 101 with North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice

Renovations underway this month at the
Digby Towers in Prince Rupert, a long shuttered 
building that will be returned to the city's housing stock 
once the current work is completed

The early focus for this first week of the Spring session of the BC Legislature is that of housing, with the NDP government introducing legislative changes on Monday to address future rent increased, stop illegal renovictions and improve on the dispute resolution process for tenants and landlords.

The proposed changes were introduced on Monday by Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert, who was pinch hitting for David Eby, Attorney General and Minister for Housing 

“The changes mean no more tenants will face eviction notices for phoney renovations that were never going to happen. By putting an end to this kind of bullying behaviour, meant to drive out long-term tenants and jack up the rent, we’re protecting renters and supporting rental housing providers who do proactive maintenance of their rental homes 

We know many people who rent in our communities have been challenged by high rents. That’s why our government cut rent increases almost in half by capping them to inflation, and then when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we stopped rent increases altogether and now we’re extending that to the end of 2021. We know there’s more to do, but with these new changes, we’re continuing to make progress.”

Some of the highlights of the proposed legislation to change tenancy law include:

The full overview of the launch of the proposed legislation can be explored here.

North Coast MLA Jennifer Rice spoke to the proposed legislation during her appearance in the Legislature on Tuesday afternoon, recounting many of the points noted above and adding some background from the experiences of residents living in Prince Rupert and area.

"We know that COVID-19 continues to touch all aspects of our lives and our economy. Even the slightest increase in rent could be extremely challenging for many renters right now. So we've introduced legislative changes that would give renters more security by extending the rent freeze to the end of this year, to December 31, 2021. 

Currently, in Prince Rupert, rents are comparable to those in Vancouver, and the quality of many of these rentals are poor, Prince Rupert having the oldest housing stock of any municipality in British Columbia. 

In order to further protect tenants, landlords will be required to apply to the residential tenancy branch before they can evict tenants for renovations. 

Additional requirements are being added to make it clear that landlords cannot end tenancies for renovations that are not extensive, or that do not require the rental unit to be vacant. 

For example, if you're gutting an apartment and taking out walls, etc., evicting a tenant makes sense to do the repairs. 

But way too many times, we were seeing that people were being evicted for supposed renovations, only to find out later that a mere coat of paint was added to the walls, which could have been done without evicting anyone.

The North Coast MLA offered up a comparison towards the approach that her party has taken on housing while in government, as opposed to how she viewed the efforts of the BC Liberal Party in years past.

Our government has made important improvements to rental housing policies in B.C. that have saved renters money and better protected them and improved services that renters and landlords count on.

 We know that after so many years of the old government's bad choices, renters are still hurting. And we still have a long way to go, but we're making progress, and we have to keep going. 

The opposition has opposed nearly every major action we've taken to support renters. They would take us backward and make renters pay more. 

Our rent freeze and capping rent increases to inflation are saving renters hundreds of dollars a year. Now we're freezing rents for all of 2021 and making our cap to inflation permanent for all rent increases from 2022 and beyond.

Ms. Rice also made note of the progress on housing to date and how BC has fared compared to other regions of Canada.

These are still very hard times for people, but we're seeing signs that our supports have helped. We were the only major province to provide a temporary rent supplement to help renters pay rent during COVID-19. 

Well, I know there are people still struggling, and there are many here in my hometown of Prince Rupert. 

New data shows that B.C. has the lowest rate of rent arrears in the country other than Newfoundland. We're going to keep working to support people, including through the B.C. recovery benefit.

You can review her full presentation to the Legislature from Tuesday from the Hansard account of the day's debate here. Ms. Rice's presentation is marked at the 4:45 point of the day's proceedings.

You can also view the proceedings of the day from the Video Archive from the Legislature, Ms. Rice's contribution to the discussion starts at the 4:45 PM mark.

For more note on the work of the North Coast MLA at the Legislature see our archive page here.

Further notes on Housing in Prince Rupert can be explored here.

A wider overview of the political scene in Victoria can be found from our Victoria Viewpoints feature .

Cross posted from the North Coast Review