A recent academic research review looked at 112 published empirical studies of rent control. The study is making the rounds of discussion. It’s an interesting summary of the trade-offs of this policy lever.
While interesting, Ontario’s rental housing crisis is not the result of rent control, it is the outcome of policy decisions by all three levels of government.
For decades, municipal governments have prevented the construction of multi-residential apartments, the federal government has made it near impossible to finance apartment building, and for the past two decades, both the federal Conservatives and federal Liberals have encouraged the financialization of housing – creating the current crisis.
The consequences are being experienced in Hamilton, where rents are well beyond what the working class can afford, young people are forced to pay exorbitant rents (pulling money out of the local economy), and long-tenured tenants are being renovicted or having their tenancies terminated by any means necessary.
The market is imbalanced, and it will take years to correct decades of terrible policy choices.
(To say nothing of how both the federal and provincial governments effectively took a 30-year pause on building social housing, leaving those who need non-market housing with no place to live.)
Great study exposing the apartment housing crisis generated from government poor policies including rent control. Mississauga is no exception as incompetent pilot programs add to the present rental industry debacle.
Mississauga Ward 7 city councillor Dipika Damerla bragged it was “her idea” for MARC mandatory apartment building inspections. However, Dipika Damerla’s inspections can cause significant RENT INCREASES from capital-cost recapture AGI’s. Mississauga tenants deserve the truth about the MARC pilot program.
On February 2nd/2024, Canadian Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten wrote that a city is PROHIBITED “from using its delegated authority to regulate businesses in relation to a subject matter for which those businesses are already subject to regulation under another statute, for the same predominant purpose.”
The statement is from the Court of Appeals which upheld a Supreme Court decision for two landlords who SUCCESSFULLY SUED the City of Vancouver because the city wanted rent control on vacant units.
How can Mississauga impose pilot programs that conflict with existing statutes and property rights? The Ontario Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) and the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) already regulate businesses. If the RTA enabled city intervention of landlord and tenant matters or building management policies then the act would implicitly grant such power.
Municipalities should not referee landlord and tenant issues. Ontario legislation already handles these complex matters with tribunal adjudicator hearings exposing pertinent facts for proper resolves in each case.
Many tenants enjoy extremely low rents for their lifetime thanks to antiquated Ontario rent control laws. Unfortunately, this removes a rental unit from the natural supply for decades and contributes to the prevalent rent disparity.
City council must exercise integrity rather than appeasing low-rent tenants with adverse pilot programs. Presently, the Mississauga city council members are Natalie Hart, Brad Butt, Stephen Dasko, Alvin Tedjo, Chris Fonseca, John Kovac, Joe Horneck, Dipika Damerla, Martin Reid, Sue McFadden, and Matt Mahoney.