(Quebec) France-Élaine Duranceau admits that her new housing law, which aimed precisely to “protect people against evictions”, is not sufficient. The minister will table a second bill this Thursday to “strengthen the protection of tenants”, including seniors.
What there is to know
- Adopted in February, the new housing law (bill 31) reduces the scope of the transfer of lease, gives “superpowers” to cities to build housing more quickly and adds to the law compensation when a owner evicts a tenant, for example.
- Despite its adoption, Québec solidaire pushed hard for the Legault government to broaden the scope of the “Françoise David law” to better protect seniors from evictions. Quebec called the bill solidarity this winter, but showed little openness to its adoption.
- France-Élaine Duranceau finally chooses to table her own bill which will “limit the right of landlords to evict and strengthen the protection of elderly tenants”.
The Minister of Housing will finally table her own legislative text “limiting landlords’ right to evict and strengthening the protection of senior tenants.” The bill would contain specific measures to counter evictions, both for seniors and for all tenants.
This is a change of direction for the Legault government as the minister has repeated in recent weeks that her housing law (bill 31) – adopted just three months ago – was to “protect seniors and all Quebecers.”
France-Élaine Duranceau admitted Tuesday that her new law and “all the measures that [le gouvernement] puts forward to increase supply and build more quickly” do not have “an immediate effect” on tenants. This element, combined with the effects of “the massive arrival of non-permanent immigrants” which exerts “intense pressure” on housing, justifies the tabling of new measures, according to her.
“I think that in this context, it will take and it will take exceptional measures. And that’s the bill that we’re going to table soon,” she said, without specifying its content.
The idea is to ensure that Quebecers will get through the housing crisis in a more humane way. We will cross it more humanely. [Ce sont] measures which, I think, will have a very beneficial concrete effect in reducing stress, for many, for all Quebecers and also, particularly for seniors.
the Minister of Housing, France-Élaine Duranceau
Since February, she explains that she “continued to analyze the measurements” and “went to find all the information that [elle] needed to get everyone in the right place.”
Québec solidaire, which is hot on the heels of the Legault government to expand the “Françoise David law”, is delighted with the minister’s intentions. The training sees a direct link with its representations.
“We are impatiently waiting to see the content of this bill to see how far she will be ready to go, but what I saw from the minister this morning is that she had done a lot of progress in recent months, and that is thanks to the work and then the mobilization that have been done,” underlined the solidarity MP, Christine Labrie, who was coming out of a meeting with Mme Duranceau, in the morning.
“If it hadn’t been for this work, we would undoubtedly have stopped at Bill 31,” added parliamentary leader Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois. “It doesn’t often happen that an opposition party and then citizen groups are able to change the position of a government, and we have a feeling that this is what will happen in the coming days,” he added.
According to our information, M’s billme Duranceau would partially respond to the demands of Québec solidaire.
Turnaround
The Legault government agreed this winter to call the Québec solidaire bill aimed at expanding the “Françoise David law”, which stipulates that a senior over 70 with a very low income and who lives in his or her home for more than 10 years cannot be ousted. The left-wing party calls in particular for seniors aged 65 and over to be included.
It is not often that the government calls the opposition’s bills. In this case, this was negotiated in exchange for the use of a gag order for the adoption of Christian Dubé’s health reform in December. Despite this gesture, Mme Duranceau had shown little openness to going further, ensuring that his law did the job.
“We will debate it, we will listen to their arguments. This was extensively debated within the framework of Bill 31, but we will listen again. That said, I would like to reiterate that Law 31 took action against evictions. She is doing her work on the ground, I hear it,” pleaded Mme Duranceau, March 28. The parliamentary leader, Simon Jolin-Barrette, had even affirmed for his part that the debate had already taken place.
The leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, had also described the affair as a “play”, since he did not believe that this bill resulting from a round of negotiations between the CAQ and QS would come to fruition. on concrete public policies.
On Tuesday, PQ MP Pascal Bérubé did not want to concede that this was a gain for Québec solidaire. “If they want to see it like that, I think they really need it […] Let’s wait and see what will be tabled,” said the member for Matane-Matapédia.