City's Renoviction/Rental Housing bylaw one step closer to adoption after Half hour of back and forth over City Manager's Amendment recommendations

Slowly, very slowly as it has turned, but surely, Prince Rupert City Council is getting closer to closure on the plans to create additional tenant protections on themes of renoviction and rental housing, with the City's Councillors providing third reading for their proposed bylaw at their April 11th Council Session. 

The process from the original discussion began in September of 2021,  towards the need for some kind of protections for tenants to actual bylaw guidance has been one of months and more than a few rewrites, with the April 11th Council session providing for one last exhaustive review of what the City has in mind towards their goals for tenant protection, elements of which were put in place last year by the Provincial government.

From the April 11th Council session, the Report from City Manager Robert Buchan provided for some final answers to questions raised in recent months over the direction the bylaw was taking, with the City Manager providing for four key elements for discussion and adoption by the end of the half hour dedicated to the topic.

From that report Council members offered a range of views on the protections required for tenants and property owners, subsequently accepting recommendations of A-D from the report.

To get to that point, there was extensive discussion on what limits should be set for units required towards an exemption from the bylaw in order to offer some assurance for those who are not corporate renters but merely individual property owners with suites.

Some of the guiding observations on the goals of Council included:

For the Mayor  protection for both tenants and small landlords made for his main priority for the bylaw provisions.

"My only concern with this entire bylaw really, it breaks down to what Paul Legace said about people paying for peoples relocation. I think there's a different between you know rental property management teams that have stock across the province or across Canada, you know they manage these things for a living, versus the Mom and Pa's that have maybe like Mr. Buchan says ten units or less or a couple of homes or whatever it is and then they choose to do something, these people aren't millionaires you know they still have paycheques and now they're on the hook to pay for someone else's rent that they can't afford, that to me is there's a balance there ... I think that to me is my primary concern out of this whole thing, everything else I think is great, and I agree with all the amendments ... I want to make sure that we're not punishing someone but also protecting renters that is where my line is drawn" -- Mayor Lee Brain

Towards the concerns of Council when it comes to relocation cost assistance that would be required, the City Manager noted that in clarification,  as the bylaw is written, there is no relocation cost being required by the landlord, with the one exception of somebody who is trying to get their licence cancelled so they can evict and then rent the property out to someone else. 

Councillor Mirau offered up a reminder of one element of the bylaw that could provide some support for property owners seeking redress to concerns over exemption limits.

"There is a reference made regard to the language  rental owners may also make an application to Council for an exemption which Council can consider on a case by case basis, that's again that's giving us a bit of an out if there's any exceptions to this rule or there's any unforeseen circumstances or unintended consequences that we might see as a result of adopting this bylaw. So I think allowing ourselves the ability to consider things on a case by case basis moving from here tonight, I'm happy with the amendments A-D" -- Councillor Blair Mirau

Councillor Adey observed that whatever decision that council makes on benchmarks for exemption, there would be a process for those not happy to follow to express their concerns.

"I would just like to say that I agree with the point that Councillor Mirau said,   in the end we will draw a line and those owners who fall on the wrong side of that line in terms of exemption, will always have the right to appeal, so in a way it just becomes a bot of a moot point because one would assume, if a party who was not exempted felt aggrieved by that, they've got a process to follow" -- Councillor Nick Adey

While it may seem like Council took the long road towards a bylaw, as the City Manager noted, as things have turned out, the city's bylaw planning may actually put it ahead of proposed provincial housing regulations to come later this year.

"The logic as I understand it behind the recommendation in housing actions, was Council by allowing suites or lock off units in duplexes, is enabling more rental stock to be built, more housing stock to be built. Without a barrier, a process barrier of having to go through a rezoning.  It was about, I think in the context of Prince Rupert recognizing the enormous need for housing and facilitating it in a more expeditious way. 

What's also interesting is that this is not terribly dis-similar to what the Provincial government has been saying that they're contemplating doing in the fall anyways, saying no single family zoning ... the intent behind that was to say that we need to have densification, small infill densification as an outright  right throughout communities throughout the province as a way of dealing with the growing supply demand and balance of residential units ... so it's similar thought with that, this would put Prince Rupert ahead of that and being more proactive, if council decides to proceed, but that is a separate question it's a question for Council to be addressing in the next month or two"   -- City Manager Robert Buchan

With third reading now done and out of the way, the proposed bylaw will return for Final approval at a future Council Session.

You can review Dr. Buchan's full report for Council from the City's Agenda for April 11th, starting on page.

A wider overview of the discussion points can be explored from our Council Timeline, as well as through the video presentation of the April 11th Council session starting at the twenty minute mark.

More notes on Housing themes in the city can be reviewed here, while past City Council Discussion themes can be explored here.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review.