20 Jul 2026 Council meeting Housing

Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw

Motion
Tenant Protection Bylaw: 1. Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459 (to support residential tenants displaced due to redevelopment) pass first reading; 2. Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459 pass second reading; and, 3. Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459 pass third reading. Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw: 4. Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. 7159.27 (to establish fines for non-compliance with Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459) pass first reading; 5. Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. 7159.27 pass second reading; and, 6. Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. 7159.27 pass third reading.
Sources
Agenda itemCity agenda, whole meeting
Staff reportPage 1
Purpose
To present the “Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459” and related amendments to the “Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw 2012 No. 7159” for Council’s consideration.
Staff report, page 1
Staff recommendation
That: Tenant Protection Bylaw: 1. “Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459” (to support residential tenants displaced due to redevelopment) pass first reading; 2. “Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459” pass second reading; and, 3. “Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459” pass third reading. Bylaw Notice Enforcement Bylaw: 4. “Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. 7159.27” (to establish fines for non- compliance with Residential Tenant Assistance Bylaw 2026 No. 7459) pass first reading; 5. “Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. 7159.27” pass second reading; and, 6. “Bylaw Notice Enforcement Amendment Bylaw 2026 No. …
Staff report, page 1
DocumentsStaff report about Housing

Hilary Eastmure Yes

Thank you very much, Councillor Ishmir. Thank you. So I just had a question about the financial compensation requirement. So it's the, um, rental building owners required to provide four months rent. That includes the one month that already exists under the residential tendency act. But then the piece about reduced compensation if the tenant enters into a new tendency agreement with the owner at a rental rate not exceeding 10 percent of the tenants current rent. So if they move back into the same. But updated unit and And so we don't have the right of first refusal at all in our policy then. Correct. Yeah. So, so this one didn't include right at first refusal. Um, it was one of the enhanced options that was presented to the governance and priorities committee, but ultimately, um, didn't move forward.
Councillor Manley. Should speak to it. Thank you. So while I am glad that we are bringing in some new. Pieces to assist when tenants are forced to move because of redevelopment, I just want to acknowledge that. It doesn't. It doesn't provide the full protections that, that I personally feel renters need and deserve. Particularly the right of first refusal to move back into a unit in the same building at the rate. At a rate similar to what they were paying before redevelopment. Um. And I think that without vacancy control in the province, we are going to continue losing affordable rentals at a rate that, um, is going to push people into homelessness. And I, I think that we do need to see leadership from the province on this because it is the province that is, is pushing the densification and the redevelopment and the building of more housing. But at the same time, they aren't, um, giving renters that protections that they need to be able to live in an affordable unit. So I think in the city, we're really trying to do what the province is asking and support redevelopment and support densification. And I think this is a good small step towards, um, assisting renters. But if even with three additional months of. Rent at market rate, if you're forced to move from a place that you've been living in for 10 years, you're very quickly, um, going to go through that money and be living in an unaffordable rental again. So I know that at the City level, vacancy control is likely not something that we are going to take leadership on. And that means that landlords can't jack the rent at sort of any rate they want in between renters. Um, because as the mayor likes to say today's unaffordable housing is tomorrow's affordable housing, but that's only the case if you have vacancy control. Um, so, so I think this is a good small first step, but, but I want to acknowledge that without the ability to have write a first refusal and returning at a similar rate, um, it's, it's not going far enough to provide the protections that are really going to make a difference to renters. And I want to see the province step up with. Them. With rental subsidies and ensuring that the affordable rentals that exist today continue to exist because we know that, um, they're operating agreements for some of our local affordable rentals are running out in 2028 and people are going to be in a very difficult situation seeing their rents jump up. Far beyond what they can afford these days. So. We're doing a little bit, but, uh, we need to see more from the province on this. Thank you. Thank you.

Leonard Krog Yes

If I may. Came to GPC on June the 15th, June the 22nd, it was passed council. And you had a gathering. I think you mentioned on the 25th of June. Did any representatives from what I'll call the landlord community attend at that time? And if so, I recall, the letter received from the provincial association of my memory.
I'm going to offer a somewhat different perspective on this. In the height of COVID, the provincial government decreed that there would be no allowable rental increase whatsoever for landlords across British Columbia. That included someone who wisely and happily provided this province. And this Community in particular with basement suite in their house that provided affordable accommodation. Notwithstanding that taxes may have increased mortgage rates may have gone up. Um, expenses in general. I do have some concern and I'm very sympathetic to long - term tenants who face what is referred to as Renoviction, uh, but there is an aging housing stock that does require replacement and as we hear over and over again, uh, today's unaffordable housing stock is tomorrow. It's affordable housing stock. That is a reality in a province where we don't provide the kind of assistance or build the amount of subsidized housing that is appropriate for the roughly 20 to 30 percent of our population that requires it. So as you would find in what I will call more advanced nations, uh, in Europe where it is a very common for people to enjoy, uh, the benefit of state supported housing on a fairly constant basis. But under our current system, there is no question that adding further regulation, adding further cost does have an impact of discouraging anyone from becoming involved in renting. The whole slow process that the residential tendency branch was suffering a few years ago when it was hard to get any one evicted for even the most outrageous behaviours. And I used to get those complaints in my constituency office all the time when I was the MLA. Had the impact of discouraging some people from abandoning renting their private suites in their own homes entirely. So as we move forward with this, the reason I asked very specifically about, uh, comments from, uh, what I'll recall the landlord community is because we are adding substantially a burden on landlords, uh, and we cannot think that every building is going to be the hundred unit owned by a REIT and your real estate investment trust, et cetera, et cetera. It will impact on somebody who owns a four unit department building in town.