Tenants at Charlottetown meeting angry over how MLA Brad Trivers wants to amend P.E.I.’s rental actProgressive Conservative MLA Brad Trivers is hearing loud and clear from tenants about what they think of his proposed private member’s bill suggesting changes to the Island’s rental act. His suggestions include allowing officials to seize the wages of people for not paying rent or breaking a lease, and bringing prices up to fair market value when tenants leave. Many tenants say the changes would hurt an already tight housing market. CBC’s Tony Davis has more. Tenants aren’t happy with a private member’s bill from MLA Brad Trivers suggesting changes to the P.E.I. Residential Tenancy Act.More than 80 people crowded into a room at the Charlottetown Library Learning Centre to offer feedback on the amendments the backbench MLA is proposing. Most of the people in the room were renters who were against any of the proposed changes to the act.There were tense exchanges, with members of the crowd shouting at Trivers, jeering at some of his comments, and one audience member providing feedback via a middle finger.Minister of Housing, Land and Communities Steven Myers also weighed in on Thursday, saying it’s not the right time to update the act.”I’m not interested in entertaining any of this,” Myers said in an interview. “Now is not really the time to help jack the rents up and put people in a position where they can’t stay where they are.”But Trivers said his amendments are meant to strike a balance between what tenants want and what landlords are asking for.Backbench Progressive Conservative MLA calling for changes to P.E.I.’s Residential Tenancy ActMLA Brad Trivers has posted a 45-page document outlining changes he’d like to see to P.E.I.’s Residential Tenancy Act. He says there should be more protection for landlords on the Island. As CBC’s Cody MacKay reports, he’s planning to hold consultations on his ideas soon, and wants Islanders to tell him what they think. “It’s finding that balance between landlords who say, ‘Hey, if the unit is vacant, we should be able to go to fair market value, and we need to, otherwise we can’t stay in business,’ [and] tenants who say, ‘Hey, if you go to fair market value, then I’m no longer going to be able to afford the rent,” he said.Some of the changes to the act suggested by Trivers include bringing lower rents up to “fair market value” when tenants leave a unit, allowing a new mechanism for greater-than-allowable rent increases, and allowing court-order seizure of wages for those who don’t pay rent or break a lease.P.E.I. Housing Minister Steven Myers, shown being interviewed in Charlottetown Thursday, says loosening rent controls is not on the government’s agenda at this time. (Tony Davis/CBC)Myers said affordability and housing stock issues remain his focus over loosening rent controls.”We have the most housing starts in the first half of the year in history,” he said. “Our waiting list for our social housing is down to as low as it’s ever been, since like 1991 or something like that. So I really feel like we’re starting to get ahead of it.”Lack of data questionedNouhad Mourad, who rents a unit on P.E.I., told Trivers at the meeting that she was flustered by his lack of data to back up his proposals — such as statistics on how often landlords have to deal with rental units left damaged by tenants.”You are the former housing minister. It is so disingenuous of you to present this information as if you have no data… There is data in the room. A rental registry was proposed. I just think that this is… [a] disingenuous and abhorrent thing to do,” she said. You’re coming at me personally here.— Brad Trivers”Half of the people at Park Street shelter have rental supplements from your government. They can’t afford the housing market. These are things that you are aware of from your portfolios as minister of the current government.”Trivers took the comment as a personal jab.”You’re coming at me personally here and, and I mean, I can defend myself if you like,” Trivers said, adding that he had proposed a rental registry, but hit some snags with fellow members of government.’Let’s have a respectful discussion here’Darcie Lanthier, a landlord who runs My Old Apartment — which documents illegal rent increases in the province — gave Trivers the middle finger after he stated she didn’t want to have an open discussion about possible changes to the act.Trivers did try and calm the room multiple times.”Listen, let’s have a respectful discussion here, you guys, you know, my goodness. We live in a society where, you know, everybody’s allowed to have a voice — tenants, landlords. It’s my responsibility to do what I feel is right. You know, that’s why I got into politics,” he said.”I want to have conversations with you guys to find out what’s wrong. And we’re having that right now.”More than 80 people piled into a room at the Charlottetown Library to offer feedback to changes MLA Brad Trivers is suggesting to the Residential Tenancy Act. Most of the people in the room were renters who were against any changes to the act. (Tony Davis/CBC)Mourad said she wasn’t sure why Trivers took her question as a personal attack.”I think that if Brad feels that… sharing his experience as a minister is offensive to him, then I think he needs to do some really deep self-reflection and meditation and then maybe reflect on why he feels outrage or offence to the fact that people are not seeing the experience of a housing minister reflected on the disingenuous and, like, lack of data-driven proposals,” she said.Mourad believes the proposed changes will make life harder for tenants, such as the suggestion to bar tenants from the place they live for three hours during real estate showings.”Rental showings can be done month after month after month. And this is based on one story that he heard of a single mother who’s trying to sell a house. What about single parents with three kids that need to continuously be removed from their house for three hours a day?” Proposed changes ‘skewed towards landlords’Some landlords in the room also spoke about issues they’ve had with damaged properties and wanting more tools to be able to get damages paid for. Others spoke about the difficulty and financial hardship they face to keep rents low.Some suggested if they can’t make a profit on rental units, they may have to sell them. That comment was met with sarcastic clapping and cheers from much of the crowd.However, not all landlords agreed with Trivers’s proposed changes. One stated he didn’t need the additional help from the government, and if there were issues, he could simply sell his investment for a profit.’A lot of these amendments seem very skewed towards landlords,’ said Jason Alward, who lives in a rental unit. (Tony Davis/CBC)Jason Alward said he’s seen his friends renovicted and face other hardships, and that’s why renters like him are so passionate about the topic.”It’s understandable they don’t like any of this because obviously there was no data. I mean, in every one of the points he couldn’t come out with any answers,” Alward said.”And a lot of these amendments seem very skewed towards landlords. So I just wonder where he came up with this and who we consulted about this.”Trivers used a survey app to track live feedback. The app was used in Summerside for public consultations on Tuesday night and then again on Wednesday during the meeting in Charlottetown. For every single amendment proposed, “no to changing the act” was the top response.”I think a lot of the suggestions proposed here tonight, we’re leaning more in favour towards landlords and not offering much in protection for the tenants,” said Isaac Bell, another renter who attended the meeting.”I would say it’s fairly unbalanced and I would be worried about the outcome because it seems like there’s already a bit of a housing crisis going on here on P.E.I. and low vacancy rates. So I think this would worsen that and also just give more unnecessary power to the landlords who, in my opinion, already have more power in this situation.”‘There’s already a bit of a housing crisis going on here on P.E.I. and low vacancy rates. So I think this would worsen that and also just give more unnecessary power to the landlords,’ said Isaac Bell, another renter who attended the meeting. (Tony Davis/CBC)Others at the meeting, though not renters themselves, said they were still worried about the impact on tenants.”The rent cap, even the hard rent cap that we have in right now, is a real struggle for tenants… People are already making sacrifices, whether it’s eating less food or making decisions between bills,” said Mikayla Gallant.”You’re asking for people to be put out into the streets. We already have a housing and security problem here in P.E.I. and it’s become a problem with crime. You see the poverty going up. We have one of the highest child poverty rates in Canada — I think it’s the highest. And we criminalize the people that can’t afford a house to live with dignity, and we’re just going to push them further out into the streets.”Proposals would worsen affordability, group saysMembers of the P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing believe Trivers’s proposed changes, if enacted, would hurt an already unaffordable housing market.”It’s ridiculous and disconnected from reality,” said Cory Pater, who volunteers with the group.’It’s ridiculous and disconnected from reality,’ Cory Pater, a volunteer with P.E.I. Fight for Affordable Housing, said of Trivers’s proposed changes. (Tony Davis/CBC)Trivers has previously stated that the act, as it stands, benefits tenants more over landlords, partly because of the Fight for Affordable Housing’s work.”The opposite is true. It’s swayed in favour of landlords pretty heavily,” Pater said, adding when the act was last updated, only two suggestions from the group made it into legislation.The Residential Tenancy Act does offer a reasonable return on investment to landlords, Pater said.”We are the only province that has language like this in our Residential Tenancy Act and there is no language that the ability of the tenant to pay the rent increase has to be considered.”‘I want to have conversations with you guys to find out what’s wrong,’ MLA Brad Trivers, shown in a file photo, told a room filled with angry renters on Wednesday night. (Ken Linton/CBC)At the meeting, Trivers said his proposed amendments would actually remove that requirement from the legislation if passed.Pater wasn’t at the meeting on Wednesday night, but other members of the group who were there said many people in attendance signed up to volunteer or support the grassroots movement.Former Green MLA Hannah Bell noted during the meeting that Trivers in his role can’t add new line items when it comes to provincial spending and suggested Trivers’s proposed changes would require that.Trivers made it clear that what he’s putting forward are suggestions, and that he’s willing to adapt them after feedback from both landlords and tenants.
Housing minister, tenants oppose MLA Brad Trivers’s suggested rental act changes
