(NEWSFIRST) – While the Minister responsible for Housing has just unveiled the new criteria used to calculate rent increases by the Administrative Housing Tribunal (TAL), the Official Opposition Critic for Housing, Virginie Dufour, has introduced a bill to create an independent committee to make recommendations on rent-setting criteria.
With her bill, the Liberal MP advocates for a change in the tool for calculating the NLP so that it is fair, simple and balanced. Housing and tenants’ rights associations must be involved in this formula.
A revision of the TAL scale should make it possible to mitigate the sudden effects for tenants, and to ensure that owners have the necessary resources to maintain the rental housing stock.
A revision of the grid must reflect the real costs of homeowners, insists Ms. Dufour.
“This important responsibility for establishing the criteria for setting rents must no longer fall solely on the will of the Minister responsible for Housing,” said Dufour.
“Homeowner and tenant associations are in the best position to agree on what needs to be considered based on the evolution of the market and the reality of the moment,” she added. “This is why we propose the creation of a joint committee, which will meet every five years, with the function of making recommendations to the TAL on this subject.
“All the groups in the field are dissatisfied with the new rules unilaterally imposed by the minister when they should rather be part of the solution by being directly involved in its formulation,” said Dufour. “I ask the CAQ to proceed quickly with the study of this bill.”
