WHEREAS the administration of residential tenancies in Ontario is generally the prerogative of the Provincial Government;
AND WHEREAS Mississauga has over 71,000 tenant households and 27% of its population are tenants;
AND WHEREAS the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) is an adjudicative tribunal created by the Provincial Government to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants through mediation or adjudication, resolve eviction applications from co-ops, and provide information to landlords and tenants about their rights and responsibilities;
AND WHEREAS the LTB offered in-person services at its regional location at 3 Robert Speck Parkway in Mississauga, offering daily on-site mediation, tenant duty counsel services, counter staff services for Mississauga residents, and hearings were scheduled for addresses located in Mississauga and Brampton five days per week;
AND WHEREAS the LTB moved to a remote service model in September 2020 and two months later decided to permanently remove all in-person services post pandemic;
AND WHEREAS this decision has created a digital divide for people living in rural and remote areas, people living with poverty who do not have sufficient broadband or devices to participate, people who do not speak French or English, survivors of intimate partner violence where home is not a safe space to conduct a hearing, and individuals with disability, literacy, or numeracy challenges, with the Advocacy Centre of Tenants Ontario finding in 2021 that 55.6% of tenants participated by phone compared to only 26% of landlords;
AND WHEREAS the LTB in 2018 allowed the terms of experienced adjudicators to elapse which created an adjudicator shortage creating delays that drew the Ombudsman of Ontario to investigate the Board such that in January 2020, landlords were waiting 7 weeks and tenants 8 weeks for their hearings;
AND WHEREAS the backlog was 22,803 cases when the investigation was announced in January 2020, the removal of in-person services and other operational decisions increased the backlog to 53,057 cases by March 2023. Some of those operational decisions included;
1) Removing regional scheduling and having disputes from across the province heard at every hearing block which precluded adjudicators from understanding the local housing conditions and becoming familiar with the parties in order to issue just decisions;
2) Toronto and Ottawa matters are heard most often at the LTB with Mississauga applications given less priority, and homelessness prevention programs could no longer efficiently help residents without a hearing block dedicated to them;
3) The permanent closure of the regional office in Mississauga and elsewhere has slowed the LTB’s ability to address urgent matters, parties cannot easily access documents without overcoming several digital barriers, and residents can not ask questions from knowledgeable and experienced staff to ensure that simple mistakes are caught prior to the day of their hearing;
4) Only select virtual hearing blocks are assigned mediators and moderators (virtual concierge helps participants on the day of their hearing to navigate the process) leaving adjudicators by themselves to manage the virtual waiting area, move people to breakout rooms and adjudicate the complex matters before them;
5) Where there are multiple applications regarding the same address they are heard in separate hearing blocks and assigned to different adjudicators which is both inefficient and creates a situation where unfair and inconsistent outcomes may arise;
6) Hallway conversations that used to resolve a large number of applications before proceeding to adjudication are no longer possible with virtual hearings with most matters proceeding directly for adjudication and increasing the Board’s backlog;
AND WHEREAS the Ombudsman released its report in May 2023 and found that
1) “A significant number of tenants, in contrast to landlords, do not have access to video technology and must participate in hearings by phone,” while the landlord and the adjudicators are in a video hearing room. Some tenants lack access to phones, rendering their participation in virtual hearings impossible without accommodation (Ombudsman’s report, para. 198);
2) Virtual hearings are “chaotic,” with participants struggling and sometimes failing to join their hearing, or “losing audio connection part way through.” Adjudicators reported being unable to find and share documents on screen during a hearing. People are inappropriately placed on mute. Tenants cannot review documents when the landlord presents them and cannot share their screen if they have relevant evidence to rebut the landlord’s evidence (Ombudsman’s report, para. 215-220);
3) Delays in issuing Orders. The former Associate Chair admitted, “this is not ideal – let me be clear. We used to do 4 [days to issue orders], now we’re at 30. We have a serious problem.” (Ombudsman’s report, para. 238);
4) Landlord applications took an average of 6 to 9 months to be heard but tenant applications about maintenance and tenants’ rights issues took up to 2 years with some applications from 2017 yet to be resolved. (Ombudsman’s Report, para. 6);
5) It was unconscionable to permit tenant applications to lie dormant for up to six years. “The official said the Board generally prioritized scheduling of landlord applications to reduce the backlog, because it could hear more applications in the available time. While tenant applications may be more time intensive, this does not justify shelving them in order to process landlord matters that can be more expeditiously disposed of. The Board should immediately triage the outstanding tenant matters”; (Ombudsman’s report, para. 148);
AND WHEREAS the Ombudsman concluded that “[d]espite the dozens of specific recommendations I have already made, addressed at improving efficiencies … at virtually every stage, I believe that more is required…Over the past few years, the Board has proven itself unequipped for the task of reducing its extraordinary backlog of applications..[the] Board is fundamentally failing in its role of providing swift justice to those seeking resolution of residential landlord and tenant issues.” (para. 306)
AND WHEREAS delivering computers or flip phones to parties and introducing an IT support line this year is insufficient to overcome the digital divide experienced by self-represented tenants when in-person services were taken away from their communities;
AND WHEREAS we have a housing crisis that is evidenced by the following:
1) In Canada, more than 235,000 people experience homelessness in any given year, and 25,000 to 35,000 people may be experiencing homelessness on any given night;
2) From 2022 to 2023, “Asking Rents” have increased across Ontario by from 10% to 35%, with 31.4% of Ontario’s renters being in core housing need;
3) In Mississauga, 39% (compared to 38% in Ontario) of renters spend more than 30% of their household income on rent, 17% (compared to 15% in Ontario) spend more than 50% of their household income on rent;
4) There has been an increase in all notices of eviction because of rapidly escalating rental prices, vacancy decontrol, and the impact of financialized housing;
5) Hearing delays at the LTB create larger arrears, which results in tenants being ineligible for accessing rent banks and other programs for support. Larger rental arrears also increase operating debts for social housing providers placing their rent-geared-to-income program in jeopardy;
6) With the LTB in disarray, and our housing and preventing homelessness supports restricted due to the LTB’s dysfunction, sustainable tenancies are lost. If a tenant is evicted from an affordable unit, that affordable unit is lost forever from the community because of vacancy decontrol;
AND WHEREAS homelessness and the housing crisis is felt most at the level of local government and the residents that they serve;
AND WHEREAS the LTB has failed and continues to fail in its stated role and process which has had an impact on residents across the province and on municipal human services which cannot compensate for the services and gaps created by the tribunal;
AND WHEREAS the Ministries of the Attorney General and of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Premier of Ontario, and all Members of Provincial Parliament are mandated to provide a fair and efficient landlord and tenant adjudicative process that does not contribute to increased homelessness, but supports all tenants and in particular low-income residents, vulnerable people, and other equity-seeking individuals escape poverty, precarious housing, and systemic disadvantage;
AND WHEREAS in 2019 the Provincial government cut Legal Aid Ontario funding in the amount of $130 million.
NOW THEREFORE IT BE RESOLVED
1) Council send a letter to Mississauga MPPs, the Attorney General, the Minister of Municipal Affairs and Housing, the Premier of Ontario (and all municipalities in Ontario), Tribunals Ontario, and the Landlord and Tenant Board highlighting the impact that the LTB’s decision to remove all in-person services has had on Mississauga residents and the current housing crisis;
2) Request that the Government of Ontario immediately move forward on all 61 recommendations of the Ombudsman’s Report;
3) Request that Tribunals Ontario bring back in-person hearings to ensure effective access to justice for all participants, at the same time permitting digital access where both parties are agreeable;
4) Request that the LTB bring back regional scheduling to improve access to housing and homelessness supports, to provide better service for people living with poverty who do not have sufficient broadband or devices to participate in virtual hearings, people who do not speak French or English, survivors of intimate partner violence where home is not a safe space to conduct a hearing, and individuals with disability, literacy, or numeracy challenges, and so that Adjudicators will have increased familiarity with the community;
5) Request that the LTB reopen counter service at 3 Robert Speck Parkway and all LTB regional offices so that LTB staff can provide parties with documents on the day of the hearing, can provide immediate support to parties for emergency matters, can minimize delays as documents can be reviewed for minor errors when they are filed, and can provide support for applicants and respondents in-person and can refer parties to appropriate resources;
6) Request that LTB operations are improved by revising LTB Forms and Notices to ensure they are written in plain language, by mailing correspondence to parties in a timely manner as an alternative to logging on to the portal, by improving website navigation, by reinstating the essential participation of mediators at every LTB session, and by improving back-office processes to ensure relevant documents are included in the LTB Portal promptly;
7) Request that the LTB create a Navigator Program to assess remote hearing suitability, to inform tenants of Tenant Duty Counsel and other community supports (such as interpreters and homelessness prevention programs), and to offer mediation services prior to the LTB hearing, and;
8) Request that the LTB conduct an annual review of all of its processes to ensure that is providing fair and accessible services, and to publicly post the findings in a transparent manner.
9) That the Provincial government re-instate funding to Ontario Legal Aid services in the amount of $130 million.