NDP to block red-tape-reduction bill

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This article was published 18/04/2018 (2871 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The NDP said it is blocking the Pallister government’s omnibus red-tape-reduction bill to try to protect renters’ ability to complain about landlords.

“There’s a provision in there that would make it harder for renters to object,” NDP Leader Wab Kinew told reporters.

Legislature rules allow the NDP to delay as many as five government bills until late November that would otherwise pass by June 4.

Kinew has already said the NDP will delay the carbon tax bill. Thursday, he will name another three bills the party will delay.

Kinew said there’s nothing else in the omnibus bill that the NDP considers egregious enough to block.

“This is the focal point. It strikes me as unfair,” he said. “Frivolous complaints (aren’t) happening.”

Kinew said if the Tories choose to remove the reference to renters’ rights, the NDP is otherwise fine with the bill being passed.

Crown Services Minister Cliff Cullen said later in a prepared statement that the tenancy section of Bill 12 would only remove unnecessary red tape and delays.

“The change under Bill 12 removes the ability of tenants to object to rent increases that either comply with or are less than the prescribed annual rent increase, which in 2018 was 1.3 per cent,” Cullen said.

“Over the past two years, 40 objections were filed, with 38 of those being referred to residential tenancies branch officers assigned to deal with outstanding repairs required for suites, something that will not change. These objections put an unnecessary burden on the RTB and create backlogs and delays for tenants that are objecting on reasonable grounds. Under these circumstances, tenants are going through a process that won’t help them in the end and will potentially add unnecessary safety risk,” Cullen said.

“For 17 years, the NDP refused to raise rental allowances for low-income tenants and in their time in government, made long wait times and red tape a concern for tenants who object to rental increases above the prescribed rate. More red tape and longer wait times are what the NDP is standing up for today, not for the rights of tenants,” Cullen said.

Meanwhile, New Democrat MLA Rob Altemeyer introduced a private member’s bill Wednesday that would amend the Residential Tenancies Act to require landlords to increase energy efficiency and reduce their costs if they seek consent from the residential tenancies commission to raise rent higher than the annual maximum allowed under provincial law.

Opposition private bills rarely get government support, but in some cases, the government may like an opposition idea and bring in its own legislation.

“It is all about protecting affordability for renters,” Altemeyer told reporters. 

He wants the province to provide funding to help landlords make rental units more energy efficient, in return for possible consent to raise rents.

Altemeyer pointed out the public utilities board will soon decide whether to grant Manitoba Hydro’s proposed rate increase of 7.9 per cent annually for six years. Plus, Manitoba is introducing a carbon tax by year’s end. As a result, costs for rental units will be soaring, he said.

Tenants have no incentive to fix units they don’t own and landlords have no incentive to hold down utility bills they don’t pay, he said, so the province should be helping.

“Renters are caught and landlords are caught in this crazy catch-22,” Altemeyer said. 

nick.martin@freepress.mb.ca