Quebec Liberal Party

Record rent benchmark increase alarms renters’ groups

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , ,

Record rent increase benchmark alarms renters’ groups

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

At the Saint-Roch offices of the Bureau d’animation et d’information logement de Québec métropolitaine (BAIL-Québec), the phones haven’t stopped ringing for days. The record rent increase benchmark of 5.9 per cent announced by the province’s housing tribunal (Tribunal administratif du logement; TAL) has many renters in a panic as they brace for lease renewal season.

In Quebec, private residential landlords can increase rent annually by as much as they see fit, explained lawyer Richard Goldman of Éducaloi, a legal information nonprofit. Renters have the choice of accepting the increase and renewing their lease, moving out, or refusing the increase. If the tenant refuses the increase, they can either try to negotiate a smaller increase directly with the landlord, or go before the TAL and have a judge set a (non-negotiable) increase. Although the increases determined by the TAL can vary widely depending on the age of a building, whether it has been recently renovated or needs work, the property owner’s tax liability and whether utilities are included, the TAL uses the benchmark as a guideline to determine what a fair increase is. Some landlords also use the benchmark to calculate increases they propose to renters.

“Rent is made up of different components – maintenance, insurance, gas, electricity, net revenue [for the property owner], all of those make up a percentage [of the increase],” explained Jonathan Carmichael, an information officer at BAIL-Québec and a spokesperson for the provincewide Régroupement des comités du logement et des associations de locataires du Québec (RCLALQ; Quebec association of housing committees and renters’ associations). Macroeconomic indicators and housing tribunal jurisprudence also play a role in the calculations. The benchmark “gives [landlords and renters] an idea of what the TAL might decide, if your case goes before the TAL.” Last year’s benchmark was four per cent. Carmichael said the 5.9 per cent benchmark is “the highest we’ve seen in years. … Twenty years ago, it was more like one per cent.”

Carmichael said the organization had been getting “lots of calls” from worried renters. “Most people’s salaries have not gone up that much, and social assistance has not gone up by that much. People have been stretching the rubber band as much as they can for a long time now. The rise of the cost of living is also high, and landlords have been profiting from it.”

Real estate lawyer Martin Messier is president of the Association des propriétaires du Québec (APQ), the residential landlords’ professional association. He refutes Carmichael’s accusation that landlords are taking advantage of the situation to line their pockets. “We know that people are in a difficult situation, and it is also hard for a lot of our property owners, who are dealing with mortgages that have nearly doubled,” he said. “It’s not true that [the increase] is going in our pockets – it’s based on expenses.” He noted that fluctuating interest rates and the rising cost of renovations have made rent increases inevitable. “Every cost involved in maintaining a building has gone up, and we need to be able to maintain the building.”

The RCLALQ, the Quebec Liberal Party and Québec Solidaire have called for a rent freeze. Messier said that was untenable, and that direct aid to the most vulnerable renters might be a better approach as inflation continues to bite and economic uncertainty looms. “A rent freeze would make sense, but only if they banned tax increases, hydro rate increases and price increases for contractors,” he said. “If people’s income does not go up, we’re all stuck. We want renters to be happy and to be in a position to pay.”

Carmichael advised anyone who receives a rent increase that they are unable or unwilling to pay to contact their local housing committee for free advice. A provincewide directory of housing committees can be found at rclalq.qc.ca/en/housing-committee.

Record rent benchmark increase alarms renters’ groups Read More »

Multi-party campaign calls for wider access to prenatal care

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , , , , ,

Multi-party campaign calls for wider access to prenatal care

Ruby Pratka, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

editor@qctonline.com

In 2021, after years of pressure from immigrant and refugee advocacy groups, the Coalition Avenir Québec government passed a law allowing children born in Quebec to access public health care through the Régie d’assurance-maladie du Québec (RAMQ) regardless of their parents’ immigration status or RAMQ eligibility. However, that coverage only kicks in once they’re outside the womb.

On Dec. 4, Québec Solidaire (QS), the Quebec Liberal Party and several advocacy groups launched a renewed push to expand RAMQ eligibility to cover prenatal, labour and delivery care for all pregnant women, regardless of immigration status. As it stands, a woman who gives birth in a Quebec hospital and doesn’t have a health card or private insurance must pay thousands of dollars of hospital bills out of pocket – up to $100,000 or more if there are complica- tions, according to Médecins du Monde (MDM) Canada.

“If we want to protect our children, we have to protect their mothers, throughout their pregnancies and through- out the prenatal period,” QS immigration critic Guillaume Cliche-Rivard told reporters after tabling a bill that would expand coverage. “It’s a ques- tion of human dignity, equal opportunity, public health and prevention. A child, from the moment of birth, will be covered by the RAMQ, but during pregnancy, neither the child nor the mother is covered. We need to correct this incoherence which has a major impact on the lives of women and on society as a whole.” Cliche-Rivard and MDM national director Pénélope Boudreault, whose organization has long advocated for expanding RAMQ eligibility, argued that covering prenatal care would save the province money, because complications would be detected and addressed earlier. Boudreault said some new mothers at risk leave hospital earlier than they should to save money.

Not all Quebec residents without health coverage are undocumented – homeless people, people waiting for an immigration decision and some work and study permit holders are among those who may not have valid health cards. “More than half the women who come to see us for prenatal care work in health, social services and education and have work permits,” said Fernanda Gonzalez, a formerly undocumented mother who is now a peer support worker at the SPOT community health clinic in Saint-Roch. “We’re not tourists – we’re workers, students, spouses, mothers … and participants in Quebec society.”

“I had a lot of difficulties during my pregnancy because I didn’t have access to health care and because the immigration system is very complicated,” she said. “The financial burden and the stress that we have when we come out of hospital with a bill of thousands of dollars is unjust and it impacts our own health.”

Quebec City resident Andréa Mataragba-Nguiasset is a work permit holder who gave birth in August. She said she had a single prenatal care appoint- ment during her pregnancy – doctors generally recommend one per month during the first five months of pregnancy and more frequent appointments thereafter – and had to work until the day before giving birth because she was unable to see a doctor to be signed off work. “The government needs to realize that it is recruiting human beings abroad, and not just ‘labour’ – what I experienced is inhumane,” she said.

A petition launched by MDM with nearly 3,200 signatures was tabled in the National Assembly the same day by Liberal immigration critic André Fortin.

“Médecins du Monde welcomes the tabling of the petition and the bill, which reinforce the social and medical consensus of a hundred organizations and institutions in Quebec. Refusing pregnant women access to perinatal care because of their migratory status endangers their health and that of their children. We need concrete and immediate solutions for the health of all women in Quebec, without exclusion,” concluded Boudreault.

MNAs agreed to consider Cliche-Rivard’s bill. During Question Period, Health Minister Christian Dubé told MNAs he planned to establish a working group to “look at what was possible” in terms of expanding RAMQ access.

Multi-party campaign calls for wider access to prenatal care Read More »

Opposition attacks CAQ for more tramway delays

Local Journalism Initiative / / / , , , , , ,

TRAM TRACKER

Opposition attacks CAQ for more tramway delays

Peter Black, Local Journalism Initiative reporter

Four months after the Coalition Avenir Québec government announced its approval of the first phase of Quebec City’s tramway project, a deal is yet to be signed to restart construction.

The prolonged delay has the Quebec Liberal Party transport critic and MNA for Nelligan Monsef Derraji wondering whether the CAQ government is stalling in the hopes a Conservative federal government under Pierre Poilievre will kill the project if it comes to power in the coming months.

Derraji and other opposition members grilled Transport Minister Geneviève Guilbault for two hours in the National Assembly on Sept. 27 on the tramway project.

In an interview with the QCT, Derraji said the problem for the CAQ government is “they have no money.” He said the government has been cutting programs and now Guilbault “said she’s waiting for money to come in from the federal government” for the tramway project.

He said Premier François Legault had called on the Bloc Québécois to support a Conservative non-confidence motion to defeat Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government. The premier “wants as soon as possible an election on the federal level.”

Poilievre has said on several occasions “he would give nothing to the tramway project,” Derraji said. The way he sees it, Legault and Guilbault “are waiting for a federal election, and after that they will say we don’t have the money for this project.”

Derraji said Guilbault had promised in June to give a mandate to the Caisse de dépôt et placement infrastructure division (CDPQ Infra) to restart work on the first phase of the $5.1-billion project.

“Why is she waiting? Next year we’ll have Pierre Poilievre.” Derraji noted that while Poilievre opposes the tramway, he has said a Conservative federal government would help finance the CAQ’s plan for a “third link” bridge across the St. Lawrence River.

Besides Derraji, opposition MNAs Étienne Grandmont of Québec Solidaire — whose riding would be home to several tramway stations if the project goes ahead — and Joël Arseneau of the Parti Québécois questioned Guilbault.

For her part, Guilbault said sending a mandate letter to CDPQ Infra is not a simple matter. “They [the opposition] just talk about the letter, but I don’t know if they understand how it works, the preparation and design of a major project. There are several things happening at the same time.”

She said meetings have been taking place between government officials and CDPQ Infra since June, when the agency submitted a report the CAQ government had requested that recommended a sweep- ing urban transit project for Quebec City and Lévis, to be called Circuit intégré de transport express or Cité.

Guilbauilt said the project transition committee last met on Sept. 24. “It’s important for people to know that the project is moving forward,” the minister told the opposition members at the National Assembly session.

As for federal funding, Guilbault said there are “certain people in the current fed- eral Liberal government who claimed in the newspapers that they were on target. That’s their usual claim: ‘We’re on target.’ But what does that mean in real life? For me, a target is money … I negotiate with them, I make my requests and I wait for the cheque, and the cheque doesn’t arrive.”

Jean-Yves Duclos, the federal minister of public services and procurement and MP for Québec, denied Guilbault’s claim (see separate story).  

Opposition attacks CAQ for more tramway delays Read More »

Scroll to Top