Nova Scotia proposes two-year extension to five-per-cent rent cap until end of 2027

HALIFAX — The Nova Scotia government wants to extend its five per cent cap on rent increases another two years, but the province won’t create an enforcement unit to bolster its tenancy rules and regulations.

Service Nova Scotia Minister Colton LeBlanc said legislation tabled Friday would extend the cap — set to expire Dec. 31, 2025 — to the end of 2027. The five per cent ceiling, he said, balances the needs of landlords and tenants, both of whom are facing increased costs.

“We still strongly believe that the answer to the rental market challenges is more housing … but in the meantime we have to protect Nova Scotians,” the minister said.

Despite recent calls from landlords and tenants for a rental compliance and enforcement unit, LeBlanc said there are adequate protections under existing rules and regulations.

In 2022, Halifax-based Davis Pier Consulting was hired by the province to study Ontario’s enforcement system, but the government never released its findings publicly. The CBC reported in August 2023 that the report had recommended a similar unit for Nova Scotia.

LeBlanc said the government thinks such a system would slow the current dispute resolution process, where the wait time for a hearing is at most six weeks. “It would be bringing more bureaucracy and more red tape at a time when we need less red tape,” he said. “It wouldn’t achieve what tenant and landlord organizations have said it may achieve.”

Both opposition parties were scathing in their assessment of the government’s latest moves.

NDP Leader Claudia Chender called the current rent cap “fundamentally useless,” saying it does little to help people who are struggling to keep up with the cost of living. The bill, she said, does nothing to address a problem with fixed-term leases, which she said are being used as a loophole by large corporate landlords to get around the rent cap by boosting rents that are charged to new tenants.

“We are heading into more housing insecurity in the face of the housing crisis that we are already in,” Chender said. “The new apartments that are coming online are extraordinarily expensive. They are out of reach for anyone who will be impacted by any of the policies announced today.”

Liberal housing critic Braedon Clark expressed disappointment that an enforcement unit will not be created.

“I’m dealing with a constituent who had a small fire in their unit 13 months ago and they are still not back in (their apartment) and there’s no timeline for when they can go back in,” Clark said.

Meanwhile, the government also proposed changes to the Residential Tenancies Act that would allow landlords to issue eviction notices after three days of unpaid rent instead of 15 days, while tenants would be prohibited from subletting units for more than they are currently paying.

As well, the bill proposes clearer conditions for landlords to end a tenancy, such as criminal behaviour, disturbing fellow tenants, repeated late rental payments and extraordinary damage to a unit.

“These changes won’t just benefit landlords, they will help other tenants and neighbours too,” said LeBlanc.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 6, 2024.

Keith Doucette, The Canadian Press