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The amendments to Bill 184 are the missing pieces to mass evictions. I was wondering how they were going to push tenants to mediation over a hearing (my guess was “strong encouragement”, stronger than Members did before) and now we know: punish tenants who want their day in court
Bill 184 restructures the RTA in such a way that when tenants fail to make re-payment obligations, there will be quiet and staggered evictions. These proposed changes to the law are truly barbaric and all Ontarians should be ashamed they’ll likely be the law of the land.
Even if you think that “they signed a contract” and have a little piece of coal for a heart, the changes are staggering from a process perspective. In an effort to “speed up the process,” the process is being thrown out. What is elided in that phrase is the word “eviction.”
What is being sped up is “the eviction process.” One of my frustrations here is that it is hard in our society to argue against the concept of “efficiency.” The new way will clearly be more efficient, so how can that be bad? Less time will be wasted, how can you argue against it?
I’ll include here some thoughts I shared on this matter in another arena:
With the overwhelming number of applications filed by landlords (and the majority of those being for nonpayment of rent), any talk of streamlining, or making more efficient, or speeding up the process,
With the overwhelming number of applications filed by landlords (and the majority of those being for nonpayment of rent), any talk of streamlining, or making more efficient, or speeding up the process,
is code for making the process faster and easier for landlords.
In the abstract, a more streamlined and efficient court seems like a good in itself, but if four-fifths of applications are landlords trying to evict tenants,
In the abstract, a more streamlined and efficient court seems like a good in itself, but if four-fifths of applications are landlords trying to evict tenants,
we need to be sure to interrogate who is served by efficiency.
I’ll finish this thread that no one will read by saying how depressing it is that renters rights is such a niche issue. @SteveClarkPC and his ilk are managing to create less security of tenure for over a million renters, but “Bill 184” isn’t on everyone’s lips. Shame on Ontario.
