(Montreal) The Regroupement of housing committees and tenant associations of Quebec (RCLALQ) organized on Saturday, in the borough of Rosemont–La Petite-Patrie, in Montreal, a new demonstration to defend the right of tenants to resort to transfers of lease to limit the increase in rents and as well as the right to affordable housing.
The study of Bill 31 by Quebec elected officials is coming to an end and today’s demonstration has the air of a last-chance mobilization. However, the organizers are not giving up, as Cédric Dussault, spokesperson for the RCLALQ, explains. “We will continue to send the message that this is an unacceptable bill. Given that the law is almost adopted, the only viable solution would be to withdraw the bill completely,” she said.
The organizations behind the demonstration are therefore demanding an immediate freeze on rents, real rent control in Quebec, but also the resignation of the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau, whom they consider take the side of real estate investors and speculation.
PHOTO GRAHAM HUGHES, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Demonstrators of all ages and backgrounds gathered on Rue Beaubien, in a procession which extended from its starting point from Rue Saint-Denis to Rue de Saint-Vallier to protest against PL31.
“This law is nonsense,” says Yao Xi, a protester living in the Villeray district. It’s hard enough to find housing, but affordable housing is worse. » The young woman explains that to be able to find a shared room in 2023, she had to increase her budget by $100. “I really hope we get rent freezes and rent controls. »
QS relaunches its Solidarity Pact to support first real estate purchases
On the sidelines of the demonstration against Bill 31, the solidarity responsible for housing, Andrés Fontecilla, relaunched, through a press release, one of the sections of the QS Solidarity Pact: the mandatory disclosure of purchase promises simultaneously on the same property.
According to Québec solidaire, the decline in home sales in Quebec in 2023 is 13%, compared to the previous year. A state of affairs that Mr. Fontecilla attributes to the lack of transparency which opens the door to excessive bidding.
“What we are experiencing is a speculative bubble that impacts all sectors,” Mr. Fontecilla said in an interview with The Canadian Press as he joined the demonstrators. What we are proposing today is to abolish the practice of blind purchase offers. It fuels the speculative bubble. »
The manager adds, specifying that households who manage to raise funds to buy their first home become terribly indebted, and sometimes “without having the capacity to sustain this debt in the long term”.
Mr. Fontecilla chose to put transparency on purchase promises back at the center of the debate at the beginning of February to take advantage of the popular movement against Bill 31 and the public pressure on the government. “We must twist the arms of the CAQ and force it to take measures.”