For Immediate Release
March 22, 2022
Legislature coming back with no solutions for housing
“For more than a year, we have presented progressive housing solutions to both Liberal and PC governments, yet the voices of the vast majority of rental housing providers in Nova Scotia continue to be ignored,” said Kevin Russell, executive director of Investment Property Owners Association of Nova Scotia (IPOANS). “Nova Scotia has a broken residential tenancies system. The provincial and municipal governments are making it harder to build more rental housing in the province, while the affordable housing crisis gets worse and worse.”
Among Premier Tim Houston government’s failures on housing to date:
- Its refusal to create a compliance and enforcement unit to ensure that landlords and tenants are respecting their responsibilities under the Residential Tenancies Act – based on models in British Columbia and Ontario;
- No help for rental housing providers who are unable to pay for skyrocketing energy prices, insurance premiums and taxes – thanks to the three years of rent control imposed by the Liberals and PCs; and
- No action to help the 2,500 tenants annually in the province facing eviction due to non-payment of rent.
IPOANS has repeatedly asked to be included in efforts to modernize the Residential Tenancies Act. Under the current law and regulations, neither landlords or tenants are able to secure quick, transparent, unbiased, and consistent decision-making that results in final enforceable decisions. Tenants have given up on using the Residential Tenancies adjudication process, while Nova Scotia’s rental housing providers are either forced to leave the industry or turn to the unregulated short-term rental market to generate revenues.
Russell noted that provincial government staff make themselves available to listen, but nothing ever comes of the discussions.
“Staff do their best to listen to our concerns, but just as it was under former Premiers Stephen McNeil and Iain Rankin, there has been no meaningful action to work with our sector from Premier Tim Houston. We need leadership to actually drive affordable housing solutions that will work and make sense to private sector rental housing providers,” added Russell. “Despite our disappointment in the Houston government ignoring private sector rental housing providers, we are always ready to work with any government on solutions.”