Lily Martin

By Chelsey St-Pierre
The Suburban

Protestors gathered at the Fairview Pointe-Claire central bus terminal on Monday to voice their opposition to what housing advocates are calling “historic” rent increases announced by the Tribunal Administratif du Logement (TAL) for 2025-26.

The demonstration, organized by the Community Action and Legal Organizations for Development and Integration (CALODI), saw tenants holding signs and offering educational materials to transit travellers about the TAL’s allowable maximum 5.9% increase for unheated dwellings and 5.5% for electrically heated units. It is the highest in 30 years, substantially above inflation and comes on top of the 4.4% increase allowed last year, making the two-year combined increase the highest in history.

“The system has been broken for a while,” CALODI spokesperson Lily Martin told The Suburban. “This historic rent increase, coming right after another record increase in 2024, will force many tenants to choose between paying rent and buying groceries or essential medications.”

Recent data from the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation reveals the severity of the situation in the West Island, with actual rent increases far exceeding the TAL’s guidelines. While last year’s allowable increase was 4.4%, areas like Pointe-Claire and Pierrefonds saw dramatic jumps of 13% and 19% respectively in some cases. But most landlords do settle with tenants below the maximum allowed by the TAL.

The housing crisis has hit West Island communities particularly hard. According to the Observatoire du grand Montréal’s 2021 data, the percentage of low-income households spending over 30% of their income on rent exceeds the Montreal average of 27.5% in most West Island municipalities. Pointe-Claire tops the list at 43.2%, followed by Kirkland at 36.2%, Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue at 33.9%, and Dollard des Ormeaux at 33.1%. Dorval shows the lowest rate at 28.9%, though still above the Montreal average.

A recent letter from the Lachine-LaSalle Housing Committee to Housing Minister France-Élaine Duranceau highlights serious concerns about the TAL’s rent calculation formula. The committee’s research reveals that the regulation systematically grants increases based on buildings’ net operating income, a component that has become increasingly problematic given the current housing market conditions.

“The increase lies predominantly in the net income of buildings,” Martin explained. “We’ve seen the net revenue component jump from 3.9% to 6.9%, creating a dangerous snowball effect.” Historical data shows this rate remained relatively stable until 2021, when it began rising sharply each year. According to Martin, the TAL’s ambiguous increase allowance chart plays a significant role in “abusive increases” practised by landlords.

According to the committee’s analysis, Quebec-wide rent increases have significantly outpaced general inflation. In 2023, average rents rose by 7.4%, while 2024 saw a 9.5% increase across municipalities with populations over 10,000. These figures represent 1.6 times the overall inflation rate for 2023 (4.5%) and four times the rate for 2024 (2.4%).

Housing advocates are calling for immediate action, including a rent freeze and the implementation of mandatory rent control and registry systems. They argue that real estate speculation, not immigration as suggested by the CAQ government, is the root cause of the crisis.

“The current guidelines for rent increases change every year, creating confusion for tenants who often don’t have access to the necessary information to understand or challenge these increases,” Martin told The Suburban. “Many landlords don’t follow TAL guidelines, and it falls on tenants to know their rights and feel comfortable defending them.”

The situation has led to increased pressure on local services, with food banks reporting significant rises in demand. Housing organizations across Quebec are uniting in their call for an immediate rent freeze to prevent what they describe as an imminent state of emergency for Quebec tenants.

“As tenants, we make up 40% of Quebec’s population,” Martin explained. “We need concrete measures to curb this crisis, not just guidelines that many landlords don’t follow anyway.” Some 70% of people on the island of Montreal rent. Historically, Montreal has had the highest percentage of renters of any city over a million people in North America.

CALODI will be hosting free workshops in the coming weeks to inform tenants about their rights regarding lease renewals and rent increases in an effort to help them curb some of the increases, where possible. n