Speaker, London tenants got some good news last month, when the city of London moved closer to joining Hamilton in preventing bad-faith renovictions.

My office hears regularly from London West tenants about unethical landlords who use illegal renovictions to remove low-income tenants and jack up rents. In the face of a dire shortage of affordable housing options, the renoviction notice can be devastating.

Tenant advocacy group ACORN reports a 300% increase in renovictions between 2017 and 2021. Those numbers continue to grow, just like the average cost of rent. Meanwhile, vacancy rates in London are at record lows.

Municipalities like London are stepping in with bylaw protection because, unlike the Ford government, they recognize that illegally forcing low-income tenants out of their units when there is nowhere else for them to go is both inhumane and bad public policy.

According to ACORN, London ranks fifth in the province in the number of renoviction notices, but it’s not only renovictions that are squeezing London tenants. Above-guideline increases, or AGIs, also create huge pressures for tenants with low or fixed incomes, and London ranks fourth in the province in the number of AGI applications, typically made by big corporate landlords.

Speaker, almost one third of Londoners are renters. Why is this government doing so little to protect them?

I want to thank all of the Londoners who signed this petition to bring back real rent control. It reads:

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas the government cancelled rent control on units built after November 2018; and

“Whereas the cost to rent a home has never been higher; and

“Whereas people are being forced to leave their communities because decent, affordable homes are increasingly out of reach; and

“Whereas the Rent Control for All Tenants Act, 2022, will ensure tenants are not gouged on rent each year;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to protect tenants from predatory rent increases and pass the Rent Control for All Tenants Act to ensure renters can live in safe and affordable homes.”

I fully support this petition, affix my signature, and will send it to the table with page Matias.

My question is to the Premier. Ryan and his family live in a two-bedroom apartment in London West that was built in 2021. He pays $2,015 a month and just received notice of a $350 rent increase, which is more than 17% and seven times the provincial rent increase guideline. That’s an additional $4,200 a year that Ryan will somehow have to find, at a time when groceries, utilities, insurance and other bills just keep rising. If he can’t make it work, Ryan will have no choice but to move out, and this could keep happening year after year.

Speaker, will the Premier act now to prohibit the exorbitant rent increases that tenants like Ryan face annually in buildings that were constructed since 2018?

Can the Premier explain why he is allowing landlords to use unaffordable rent increases as a way to effectively evict tenants from their housing?

“To the Legislative Assembly of Ontario:

“Whereas there is overwhelming evidence to show that paid sick days significantly reduce the spread of infectious disease, promote preventive health care and reduce health care system costs; and

“Whereas 60% of Ontario workers do not have access to paid sick days, and cannot afford to lose their pay if they are sick; and

“Whereas low-wage and precarious workers are the most likely to be denied paid sick days; and

“Whereas enabling workers to stay home when they are sick without losing pay helps limit the spread of illness in the workplace and allows workers to recover faster; and

“Whereas during an infectious disease emergency, it is unreasonable and dangerous to public health to make workers choose between protecting their communities and providing for their families; and

“Whereas legislating paid sick days through the Employment Standards Act, with transitional financial support for struggling small businesses, will ensure that workers have seamless, uninterrupted access to their pay;

“Therefore we, the undersigned, petition the Legislative Assembly of Ontario to immediately pass Bill 4, the Stay Home If You Are Sick Act, to provide Ontario workers with 10 annual employer-paid days of personal emergency leave and 14 days of paid leave in the case of an infectious disease emergency.”

I fully support this petition. I will affix my signature and send it to the table with page Eric.