NDP introduces last-minute rent-hike bill, Tories say it will cause administrative nightmare

A day before the legislative session ends, the NDP government introduced a bill to ensure landlords can’t charge tenants backpay for approved above-guideline rent increases.

Bill 59, the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act (2), would prohibit a landlord who has applied for a rent increase above the maximum permitted by regulation from charging tenants the new rate until it is approved.

Premier Wab Kinew announced earlier this month that renters would not have to pay the increases until the provincial Residential Tenancies Branch hears landlords’ arguments and issues its decisions.

“We recently passed legislation in the house to make sure life will be more affordable,” Kinew said at a news conference on Oct. 20, referring to a new rent bill introduced in March and expected to become law before the session ends on Oct. 29. He was flanked by Winnipeg tenants facing rent increases of more than 50 per cent.

“We’re also announcing a few steps that take things a bit further, to balance things back in the direction of renters, of tenants, of people who work hard in Manitoba and just need a little bit of help in this cost of living crisis we are all facing,” Kinew said.

One of those “steps” — stopping landlords from charging backpay to tenants for monthly above-guideline rent increases approved by the Residential Tenancies Branch — required new legislation.

Progressive Conservative interim Leader Konrad Narth said the NDP was making announcements without proper planning and consultation.

“The whole original bill is an absolute mess,” Narth said after question period Wednesday.

The PCs opposed Bill 13, the Residential Tenancies Amendment Act, when it was introduced March 15 and were able to delay it from proceeding until the fall under rules of the legislature.

“We seriously have a deficit right now in available housing and we’re not going to address that issue by bringing forward more legislation like this that restricts the ability or the willingness to invest,” Narth said.

He said Residential Tenancies Branch reviews of above-guideline rent increase applications can already take up to a year.

“This is going to cause an absolute administrative nightmare,” Narth said.

A boom in applications to the Residential Tenancies Branch will make matters worse, he said.

“They don’t have the capacity.”

A spokesman for property managers asked why the branch’s backlog has been allowed to grow, and why the government is introducing last-minute legislation.

“That’s not responsible government,” said Avrom Charach, spokesman for the Professional Property Managers Association. “This is about bad policy. It’s putting politics ahead of policy and ignoring the ramifications.”

Wednesday’s bill was not included in the sessional order of bills required to pass by the end of session Thursday and agreed upon by government and opposition house leaders earlier this month, the PCs said.

Still, the government is counting on Tory support to pass the bill before the house rises.

Public Service Delivery Minister Mintu Sandhu, who introduced the bill, said it was important to protect renters.

“The conservatives always talk about affordability and this is one of the affordability measures and they can easily pass it (Thursday) and protect the renters from these rent increases,” he said in an interview.

Kinew said earlier that the government changed its policy after tenants at eight Winnipeg apartment buildings, owned by Wingspan Properties of Alberta, pushed back against proposed rent increases of between 54 and 125 per cent.

The renters argued they should be given the opportunity to challenge the hikes before being required to pay them.

The bill signals that the government is serious about preventing above-guideline rent hikes before approval is given, a Right to Housing Coalition spokesperson said. Yutaka Dirks said he expects the bill will be reintroduced in the next session starting Nov. 17 if it fails to pass on Thursday.

“Then, we’ll have a chance to read it a little bit more in depth because we also only just found out about it today,” he said. “I would hope that it gets reintroduced so that we can engage in dialogue with the government around this bill and see that it actually accomplishes the things that will better protect tenants.”

carol.sanders@winnipegfreepress.com