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o No. 30 N 30 ISSN 1180-2987 Legislative Assembly Assemblée législative of Ontario de l’Ontario Second Session, 40th Parliament Deuxième session, 40e législature Official Report Journal of Debates des débats (Hansard) (Hansard) Wednesday 24 April 2013 Mercredi 24 avril 2013 Speaker Président Honourable Dave Levac L’honorable Dave Levac Clerk Greffière Deborah Deller Deborah Deller Hansard on the Internet Le Journal des débats sur Internet Hansard and other documents of the Legislative Assembly L’adresse pour faire paraître sur votre ordinateur personnel can be on your personal computer within hours after each le Journal et d’autres documents de l’Assemblée législative sitting. 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Hansard Reporting and Interpretation Services Service du Journal des débats et d’interprétation Room 500, West Wing, Legislative Building Salle 500, aile ouest, Édifice du Parlement 111 Wellesley Street West, Queen’s Park 111, rue Wellesley ouest, Queen’s Park Toronto ON M7A 1A2 Toronto ON M7A 1A2 Telephone 416-325-7400; fax 416-325-7430 Téléphone, 416-325-7400; télécopieur, 416-325-7430 Published by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario Publié par l’Assemblée législative de l’Ontario 1467 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY ASSEMBLÉE LÉGISLATIVE OF ONTARIO DE L’ONTARIO Wednesday 24 April 2013 Mercredi 24 avril 2013 The House met at 0900. pleased to engage in this debate here today, it again The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Good morning. comes with apprehension, as this bill would have been Please join me in prayer. enacted into law by now if the Premier and the Liberal Prayers. government hadn’t decided to prorogue Parliament and put their party’s interests ahead of what is best for On- tario. The Liberals can say this is an important bill to WEARING OF PINS them, Mr. Speaker, but actions speak louder than words, Hon. Tracy MacCharles: Point of order, Speaker. and they’ve proven that it’s not as important as, say, The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): A point of order shuttering the Legislature for four months to avoid a from the minister. contempt motion and find a new leader, a rather selfish Hon. Tracy MacCharles: I believe we have unani- act in the history of this province. mous consent that all members be permitted to wear daf- The fact of the matter, to us anyway, is that this is fodil pins today in recognition of Canadian Cancer indeed an important issue that shouldn’t have to be Society Daffodil Month. continually reintroduced, as there are 550 non-profit co- The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): The minister has operatives in Ontario—many in my riding—that provide asked for unanimous consent to wear daffodil pins. Are housing for over 125,000 Ontarians. It’s an issue that, on we agreed? Agreed. a positive note, as we’ve seen from past debate, seemed Orders of the day. to garner support from all three parties. It’s a shame it Hon. John Gerretsen: Good morning, Speaker and has taken this long to go through the parliamentary pro- members. The government will not be calling order G36 cess, but I’m certainly pleased that it’s been reintroduced but rather government order G14. and am hopeful that it may soon become law. Along with my colleagues, I’m generally supportive of this bill and its main intention to move co-operative ORDERS OF THE DAY tenure dispute cases from the courts to the Landlord and Tenant Board. This is where all other housing disputes are settled and, to me, makes sense. NON-PROFIT HOUSING There is one new aspect of the legislation that I’m CO-OPERATIVES STATUTE LAW concerned about, that I want to touch on in a few mo- AMENDMENT ACT, 2013 ments. But for now, let me explain why I believe this LOI DE 2013 MODIFIANT DES LOIS legislation is important. Similar to all other landlord and EN CE QUI CONCERNE tenant disputes, the proposed provisions in this legisla- LES COOPÉRATIVES DE LOGEMENT tion are the same provisions that all other landlords in the SANS BUT LUCRATIF province already have, and that we’ve agreed, are fair to evict a tenant. Such disputes might include: rent arrears, Resuming the debate adjourned on April 15, 2013, on late payment of rent, wilful damage and illegal activity the motion for second reading of the following bill: by tenants or interfering with other tenants’ enjoyment of Bill 14, An Act to amend the Co-operative Corpor- property and so on. ations Act and the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 in Second, the new provisions would also streamline the respect of non-profit housing co-operatives and to make resolution process by allowing co-ops to apply directly to consequential amendments to other Acts / Projet de loi the board to terminate a former member’s occupancy of a 14, Loi modifiant la Loi sur les sociétés coopératives et la member unit and evict under a few straightforward Loi de 2006 sur la location à usage d’habitation en ce qui circumstances. Such conditions might include, for in- concerne les coopératives de logement sans but lucratif et stance, where the former member has terminated his or apportant des modifications corrélatives à d’autres lois. her membership and occupancy rights; where the former The Speaker (Hon. Dave Levac): Further debate? member’s membership and occupancy rights have ex- Mr. Jim Wilson: I rise to participate in the debate pired as of a predetermined date; and where the former about Bill 14, the Non-profit Housing Co-operatives Stat- member is a post-secondary student living in a student ute Law Amendment Act, 2013, which is yet another bill housing co-operative and has given notice of termination. that has been revived by the Liberals after their similar As I’m sure most would agree, these are all basic cir- legislation, Bill 65, died with prorogation. While I’m cumstances that, under our current system, would require 1468 LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF ONTARIO 24 APRIL 2013 going to court and a great deal of time and money. This surprising coming from a government that prorogued the legislation would reduce the load of these cases and ease Legislature for political gain, cancelled power plants the burden on our court system that is not only costly but days before the 2011 election to save Liberal seats and also clogs up the system. are responsible for doubling our $411-billion debt and This brings me to a third reason this legislation is $10-billion deficit. important, and it has to do with legal costs incurred by The $45 filing fee is completely unrelated and an un- co-op members each year. The average cost of resolving necessary amendment to this legislation that almost de- co-op disputes in court is somewhere between $3,000 to feats the purpose of the bill itself. In essence, we would $5,000 per case, and with, on average, 300 cases heard be moving the cases from one backlogged court system each year, it puts court costs to co-op members upwards and creating another backlogged system. of $1 million annually. It’s a lot of money considering While I would like to affirm my belief that the Land- there is a more affordable option to settle these disputes, lord and Tenant Board is a better option for these dis- and it’s money that, instead of wasting, we could be putes—less costly, more efficient and so on—since the putting toward the housing system. Premier seems to have opened the debate about the prob- These are all benefits of Bill 14 and its predecessor lems at the Landlord and Tenant Board, it reminds me of Bill 65 that, looking to the past debate, seemed to garner a number of other concerns that I have heard from con- support from all three parties, as I’ve said, which is cer- stituents that perhaps should be reviewed. tainly a feat, considering the Liberal government’s his- 0910 tory in this minority Legislature. Considering the past In one letter I received from a constituent from Col- support for Bill 65, to ensure its swift resolution, you lingwood, you can almost feel his frustration. He wrote: would think the government would keep its successor, “Dear Mr. Wilson: Bill 14, the same in order to not rock the boat, as we say. “I am writing with concerns about the Landlord and You would think that, Mr. Speaker, but that’s not the Tenant Act. The rules, the processes, the judgments, do case. Bill 14 contains an amendment clause that gives the not serve the landlords, they serve the tenants. I am a Landlord and Tenant Board the power to waive a $45 landlord and have an extremely difficult tenant who runs filing fee for low-income tenants. From my perspective, the show at my property which is located in Colling- there was no reason to change anything in Bill 65 except wood. He parks where he wants, he harasses other ten- if they wanted to, again, just rock the boat. There was no ants. He routinely uses foul and offensive language. He is one advocating for the change—no stakeholders, no asso- familiar with the Landlord and Tenant Act, and realizes ciations, no one except this Liberal government—and it’s that it is an extremely difficult process and next to im- incredibly disturbing that a one-sided amendment to the possible, to have him removed.