In Quebec, as elsewhere, the housing crisis will not be resolved with prayers. Even less so with the too timid and extremely rare gestures of the Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau.
While her Prime Minister repeats that temporary immigration is to blame for “100%” of the crisis, when this is false, she rejects any truly structuring measure.
Apart from its partial and too late moratorium on certain types of evictions, it refuses to give back to tenants their right to transfer their lease. A right that it itself took away from them by law.
She says no to any real control of rents and to the creation of a lease registry. She repeats that the “only” solution is to “build” while Quebec is the dunce in all categories in Canada for construction starts.
Faced with the seriousness of the crisis, even the business community is calling on her to finally hold a public summit on housing. However, she will settle for a “meeting” in November held “on the sidelines” of Housing Day.
His inaction on the essentials is desperate. It is as if an oncologist, faced with a patient suffering from metastases, were content to prescribe positive thinking sessions…
Another cause of the crisis
Tourist rentals such as Airbnb have also been fuelling the crisis for too long. However, this issue is the responsibility of her colleague in Tourism, Caroline Proulx.
More proactive than Mme Duranceau, Mme Last year, Proulx had the Tourist Accommodation Act passed. The goal: to tighten the rules enough to return many of these apartments to the regular rental market.
However, according to a series of articles published in our pages at the end of the week, this law turns out to be a “sieve” for even the most minimally imaginative landlords.
These articles detail several schemes facilitated by a law deemed too vague. Permits easy to obtain without serious documented proof. Tenants evicted from their accommodation, who see it advertised much more expensively on Airbnb. Etc.
Last year I wrote that we were also seeing short-term rental ads suddenly converted into so-called long-term ones.
Act more clearly
But be careful, I noted that these are mostly “fully furnished and equipped” accommodations advertised at high prices. Probably ex-Airbnb disguised as regular rentals, but which are not really.
Nothing there to alleviate the crisis either. When we add to the picture the astonishing laxity of the City of Montreal, the result is similar.
In fact, for policymakers, Airbnb-type rentals bring in a lot of money for their public treasuries in terms of taxes and lucrative tourist influx.
The fact that the housing crisis is being exacerbated by depriving local tenants of many apartments does not seem to bother them too much.
Faced with this failure, Minister Proulx, who is nevertheless one of the good links in the Legault government, could act even more clearly.
It could take inspiration from other major cities, including Barcelona in Spain, to ban Airbnb-type rentals over a specific time frame. By 2029, Barcelona will eliminate them. Period.
According to Mayor Jaume Collboni, it is “to facilitate access to housing for residents.” Yes, indeed. At least 10,000 homes will be put back on the so-called regular market.
In short, where there’s a will, there’s a way…
