Premier Kathleen Wynne on Tuesday called a Toronto landlord’s decision to double rent at two west-end condos “particularly egregious” and said her government’s rent-control reforms will be coming “soon.”

“I know that housing affordability, whether it’s rental affordability or home ownership, is a huge issue, but I have to say those particular examples this morning were particularly egregious,” the Premier told reporters at an unrelated event.

Wynne was reacting to a story in the Toronto Star about tenants at two Toronto condominium buildings who are reportedly going to see their rent double this year.

Ontario caps rent increases on units constructed before November 1991, a 1.5-per-cent ceiling in 2017, but because there is an exemption for newer buildings, there have been calls for the governing Liberals to reform rent control laws to avoid unfair and arbitrary hikes.

Wynne acknowledged the matter was “extremely urgent” and said her government is “on it,” but could not provide a specific date for when reforms would be introduced other than to say proposals are coming “soon.”

While she did not commit outright to scrapping the 1991 exemption, Wynne said the developers’ defence of it – so that more units could be constructed – “does not actually hold water” with her because there has not been rental buildings built “in any comprehensive way.”

Meanwhile, NDP MPP Peter Tabuns has a private member’s bill that would amend the province’s Residential Tenancies Act and do away with the 1991 loophole.

To contact the reporter on this story:
snanji@qpbriefing.com
416-212-5789
Twitter: @sabrinananji

‘Particularly egregious’, Wynne says of Toronto landlord who doubled rent

Read this for free.