Several demonstrations are taking place across the province on Saturday to protest against Bill 31, which provides, among other things, for tenants to abolish the right to transfer their lease.
Organized by the Regroupement of housing committees and tenant associations of Quebec (RCLALQ), the rallies take place simultaneously in Montreal, Quebec, Rimouski, Rouyn-Noranda and Sherbrooke, in the afternoon.
For Cédric Dussault, spokesperson for the RCLALQ, the abandonment of the right to transfer a lease, provided for in article 7 of the bill, is “really the straw that breaks the camel’s back”.
“Bill 31 would represent a significant setback for tenants,” he maintains. It is odious because it makes tenants lose the right to transfer their lease […] and does not address the root causes (of the housing crisis). »
On Thursday, Prime Minister François Legault suggested that his government could back down on the measure. Questioned on this subject, the leader of the Coalition Avenir Québec indicated that he would not exclude anything and that it was necessary to “look at the pros and cons”.
The parliamentary committee studying the bill began in Quebec on Thursday.
For a regulation of rent prices
The demonstrators also plan to demand concrete measures from the government to stem this crisis, when we learned earlier this week that the province now had more than 10,000 homeless people and that homelessness had jumped 44% in Quebec in five years.
“Homelessness is not limited to the question of housing, but it is still closely linked to it. Around 25% of homelessness situations result from eviction,” underlined Nicole Dionne, coordinator of the Office of Housing Animation and Information (BAIL) of metropolitan Quebec in a press release released early this afternoon. , SATURDAY.
“It is not surprising that homelessness is experiencing a marked increase almost everywhere in Quebec. It is regrettable that the Prime Minister and the Minister of Housing show so little interest in these issues,” she adds.
The RCLALQ is also calling for an “immediate freeze” of rent prices.
“We have been asking Minister Duranceau, and many of her predecessors, for an extremely long time to implement real rent control,” alleges Mr. Dussault. This has been our main request for several decades. »
“As long as we do not establish real rent control, with a public register and a cap on rent increases, we will continue to sink into the crisis,” continues the spokesperson.
Landlords and tenants do not fight on equal terms, underlines Cassandre Vassart-Courteau, community organizer at the Bas-Saint-Laurent Housing Committee. In doing so, the “free negotiation” on which Minister Duranceau relies to let the rental market self-regulate is flawed according to her.
“Tenants very often fear refusing or negotiating rent increases for fear of reprisals, with good reason,” she laments in a press release.
Tenant assistance organizations say they have noticed for several years an “explosion” of evictions, some of which are carried out under “fraudulent” pretexts whose objective is to considerably increase the price of rent.
“What we are asking is to prohibit evictions when the vacancy rate falls below 3%,” says Mr. Dussault. This is what we are currently seeing everywhere in Quebec; almost all regions are affected. »