By Staff
January 31st, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Is there a place for rent control?
Residents who face significant rent increases want controls.
Politicians appear to be exploiting a difficult problem tjhat doesn’t have an easy answer
The conversation around rent control in Ontario is a loaded one. While tenants certainly benefit, some say that the protection disincentivizes rental construction and makes operating costs for some landlords unfeasible.
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Ancient rent controls caused crazy-low rents that existing tenants BASK in and they removed apartments from the market supply for decades. Rent controls created incredible rent disparity and STOPPED purpose-built apartment construction.
Ontario’s apartment crisis was created from poor policies including rent control. Incompetent city pilot programs add to the unaffordable rental debacle.
In Mississauga, Ward 7 councillor Dipika Damerla claims it was “her idea” for MARC mandatory proactive inspections of apartment buildings, however, this could cause RENT INCREASES from landlord capital-cost AGI’s!
The Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) has no provision for city mandatory inspections of buildings to induce capital-costs leading to AGI’s. Perhaps the city should PAY for all proactive capital-costs incurred from the MARC program or MRSP Mississauga rental standards program.
On February 2nd/2024, Canadian Justice Joyce DeWitt-Van Oosten wrote that a city is “PROHIBITED from using its delegated authority” to interfere with existing statutes.
If the Ontario RTA enabled mandatory proactive city intervention of landlord and tenant matters or building management policies then the act would implicitly grant such power. City overreach and abuse of power comes to mind.
Cities must focus on incentives for purpose-built affordable apartment construction and NOT adverse MRSP / MARC programs that could hike rents from AGI’s.
Do you see builders clamouring to get into building rental properties? I don’t! Condos priced out of first time buyers range, yes! “Affordable” rental units, nope!
That will discourage builders from this market obviously.