Montreal tenants protest against housing crisis and proposed Bill 31 as Moving Day approaches

As Moving Day approaches in Quebec, tenants’ rights advocates took over the streets of Montreal’s Parc-Extension – urging the provincial government to drop some of the changes in Bill 31. Protests took place in Montreal’s Parc metro station and Quebec City on Thursday, June 22. If passed, the housing bill would put an end to lease transfers, which some say, will only exacerbate the city’s current housing crisis.

“The only small means that was available to tenants to object to those unacceptable rent hikes was the lease transfer,” said Cedric Dussault, spokesperson for the Coalition of Housing Committees and Tenants Associations of Quebec (RCLALQ). “Now, Bill 31 wants to remove that right to tenants.”

Dussault explains that Bill 31 will grant landlords the “power to nullify” a lease transfer, even if the tenant sent notice of it. The landlord can even block the transfer on the date the lease transfer takes effect.

“It’s also going to let landlords discriminate tenants because lease transfer was also an important way to avoid discrimination,” Dussault added.

Dussault felt as though Bill 31 did not address the housing issues in Montreal, including rent hikes. According to a RCLALQ report, the average rent prices in Montreal saw an increase of 14 per cent from 2022 to 2023, and a rise by 19 per cent in the province as a whole.

The RCLALQ says the report is based on a collection of 49,000 Kijiji rental postings in Quebec.

“It’s pretty steady and steep throughout Quebec,” said Dussault, “Abitibi-Témiscamingue is at 42.8 per cent in only one year. And Côte-Nord is at 31.2 per cent.

“We’re catching up to the levels of cities like Toronto and Vancouver, not only in Montreal, but throughout Quebec.”

Advocates are especially enraged by the Quebec minister responsible for housing France-Élaine Duranceau – who proposed the Bill 31 on June 9 – after news reports came in of in real estate flipping.

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“Housing is a right. It’s a human right. It’s not supposed to be a speculative merchandise,” said Paulette Panych, a tenant and advocate against Bill 31.

“I don’t think we should be striving to follow Vancouver or Toronto,” Panych added.

Advocates even prepared posters of the housing minister Duranceau’s face photoshopped onto the body of the infamous queen of France, Marie Antoinette.

“In a situation where the population didn’t have any bread to eat, she said simply, ‘Let them eat cake,'” said Sylvain Michaud, who was evicted this year from his former residence. “It’s a reference to the fact that we’ve been in a situation where last week, we’ve been told to people who cannot find a place to rent, to buy a house.

“It’s not a solution. It’s a comment from someone who is totally detached of the population who is living these rental prices.”

“There’s going to be a lot of people in the streets in the next few weeks, the next few months,” warned Dussault. “It’s not going to go away. Not only are we not addressing the situation, we are worsening it with Bill 31.”