Gregor Robertson, Canada’s new housing minister, was likely tapped on the basis of his decade as Vancouver’s mayor, where he introduced

Those moves nudged supply but fell short: housing designed specifically for renting trickled in slowly and the city’s homeless count hit a

Robertson once blamed the housing shortfall on tight-fisted provincial and federal budgets. Now that he controls part of that money, he can test his claim. He can plug a hole his municipal toolkit never could by being, as he vowed in 2018, , and by coupling fresh federal dollars with legal protections that empower tenants to bargain collectively.

The urgency is clear: of Canadians rent, yet tenant unions,

This absence of statutory protection for tenants is often treated as a policy oversight. By withholding legal recognition, lawmakers preserve a model that allows landlords to negotiate from a position of structural dominance as tenants confront systemic harms — rent hikes, unsafe conditions and evictions — all on their own.

Canada’s rental ‘crisis’

Soaring rents and evictions have been described as a temporary

But researchers at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives counter that the market is not broken; it works exactly as designed. Calling it a crisis justifies fixes — most often lower interest rates that lure , according to Canadian policy scholar Ricardo Tranjan in his book The Tenant Class.

The results are structural, not temporary: median national rent for a and on shelter. That’s the .

Since the 1990s, the CMHC has replaced public construction with mortgage-insurance programs that flood markets with credit, Meanwhile, Prime Minister Mark Carney’s choice of Robertson as housing minister has advanced a familiar GST rebates for first-time buyers.

When asked whether housing prices should fall, arguing that wages will eventually catch up — an adjustment economists project would take even if prices stopped rising today.

Expanding credit under these conditions is more likely to trading a housing emergency for an indebtedness emergency.

Collective action without collective rights

���Գٲ�������’s typifies Canada’s token approach to renter power. It affirms tenants’ right to form associations but, in the very next clause, excuses landlords from any obligation to meet or negotiate with them. The result is performative legality: tenants can speak but landlords are free to ignore them.

The chilling effect resembles pre-industrial labour markets, where organizing invited dismissal. Recent history confirms the weakness.

In 2023, the tenants of 33 King Street in northwest Toronto mounted a five-month rent strike and won partial rollbacks, but the tribunal still refused to recognize their union; By settling disputes that way, the system drains collective power and drags cases through attritional timelines that encourage capitulation.

Canada confronted a parallel power imbalance during industrialization. Early 20th-century governments criminalized picketing and blacklisted organizers. The upheavals of the Great Depression forced Ottawa to adopt the and

Those statutes codified three enduring principles:

1. Workers may unionize free from employer interference;
2. Employers must bargain in good faith with a certified union;
3. Violations trigger meaningful remedies, including reinstatement and damages.

Legislators acted not from moral awakening, but to temper exploitation and preserve social stability.

Housing now mirrors that earlier asymmetry: corporate landlords command capital, legal expertise and mobility, while tenants have none of that power. Extending labour-style protections to tenant unions would simply apply a proven formula to rental housing.

Counter-arguments

Landlord associations often voice four main objections to statutory tenant-union rights: the anticipated administrative burden, the spectre of disinvestment, purported constitutional limits and a moral claim that responsible owners don’t need to be legally compelled to act in good faith.

Labour history suggests these concerns are overstated.

reputable employers already paid decent wages and offered sick leave before such standards were legislated. Regulation merely imposed a baseline on those profiting from exploitation.

In housing, conscientious landlords who maintain units, honour rent control and eschew predatory fees wouldn’t require mandatory bargaining or anti-retaliation clauses. But those enriching themselves through vacancy decontrol, or steep rent hikes would. Their resistance to tenant protections underscores their necessity.

Empirical evidence further weakens objections.

First, administrative overload is improbable: and the system would work the same in landlord-tenant tribunals.

Second, claims that stronger tenant rights deter investment clash with comparative experience. In Vienna, where nearly half of all dwellings fall under tenant councils wielding union-like powers and stringent rent regulation, construction activity remains

Third, constitutional concerns are overstated. Although landlord–tenant law is chiefly provincial, the federal government already shapes rental markets through CMHC insurance, targeted tax expenditures and the which recognizes adequate housing as a human right.

Ottawa could condition financing on tenant-union recognition or incentivize provinces to harmonize standards, echoing its mid-20th century push for uniform labour legislation.

Historical precedent and evidence across the country make clear that formalizing tenant-union protections is constitutional, would streamline dispute resolution and sustain construction — substantially benefiting the one-third of Canadians who rent without destabilizing the housing market.

Collective rights for collective problems

To make housing genuinely affordable, Robertson must see Canada’s rental sector not as a malfunctioning “crisis” but as a lucrative system of organized inequality.

Legislators once recognized that individual workers could not bargain fairly with industrial adversaries and created the collective-bargaining framework that undergirds labour relations today. Housing demands the same logic.

Tenant unions already operate in neighbourhoods such as , and . But without legal status, landlords can simply ignore them.

Federal legislation could correct this imbalance. Automatic certification would follow when a simple majority of tenants in a building sign membership cards, triggering a duty for landlords to bargain in good faith over rent increases, maintenance schedules, security of tenure and essential services.

Anti-retaliation clauses would bar eviction or harassment of organizing tenants, with remedies mirroring labour law: reinstatement, damages and arbitration to deter stalling.

Negotiated standards could be applied across neighbourhoods while still allowing investors reasonable but socially responsible returns.

Granting labour-style protections to tenant unions is hardly radical; it simply extends a principle Canada embraced nearly a century ago: collective problems require collective rights.

Renters cannot wait for market forces to self-correct. Recognizing and regulating tenant unions is the most direct route to balancing power, safeguarding homes and treating housing as a human right rather than an asset class.

By PhD Student , Political Science, 91��ɫ, and PhD Candidate , Political Economy, Queen's University

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TORONTO, October 13, 2016 – Homeless people may be some of the hardest hit in a pandemic, but pandemic preparedness plans often don’t include them. A new book looks at the unique challenges and issues of pandemic planning, preparedness and response when it comes to homelessness populations and those that work with them across Canada.

Cover of new book, Pandemic Preparedness & Homelessness

, co-edited by 91��ɫ alumna Kristy Buccieri with chapters by 91��ɫ U education Professor , director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, and Osgoode Hall Law School Professor Janet Mosher, presents findings from a multi-year, multi-city study. The goal is to provide a guide to better pandemic preparedness planning for some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

The research examined the planning for and response to the H1N1 influenza pandemic in 2009 and 2010, and how it impacted the homeless in four cities – Victoria, Calgary, Regina and Toronto. The researchers surveyed and interviewed homeless individuals, as well as service providers and key stakeholders.

Gaetz led the Toronto area research involving 149 participants, while Bernadette Pauly led Victoria with 44 participants, Jeannette Waegemakers Schiff led Calgary with 118 participants and Rebecca Schiff led Regina with 40 participants. Twenty four per cent of participants were youth, 31 per cent Aboriginal and 42 per cent identified as LGBTQ.

Gaetz and Buccieri discuss how the current emergency-based Canadian response to homelessness is unsustainable and, during another pandemic outbreak, will further put the health and well-being of homeless people at risk. They argue there needs to be support for planning, infection control, system capacity, inter-sectoral collaboration, communications and training, and unpredictability.

Mosher looks at how pandemics are considered global threats to national security and instead suggests looking at them through a social justice lens with a focus on the social determinants of health.

The book’s authors also look at how the four Canadian cities planned and handled the H1N1 outbreak, the effect it had on homeless individuals, what worked and what needs to change, such as the elimination of social and structural barriers to care.

is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world’s most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 26 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide. Located in Toronto, 91��ɫ is the third largest university in Canada, with a strong community of 53,000 students, 7,000 faculty and administrative staff, and more than 295,000 alumni.

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Media Contact:

Oxana Roudenko, Canadian Observatory on Homelessness, 416-736-2100 ext. 33376, oroudenko@edu.yorku.ca

The post Homeless people vulnerable during a pandemic, but left out of planning, says new book appeared first on News@91��ɫ.

TORONTO, June 2, 2016 – Ontario has the opportunity to be a leader in eliminating youth homelessness through a targeted strategy that would not only manage the crisis but prevent it, says a new report released today by the (Homeless Hub) at 91��ɫ and Canada.

At the moment, most of the effort and investment goes toward managing the problem through emergency services and supports, such as shelters and day programs. But the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness policy brief, , states there needs to be a shift towards prevention, reducing it by moving young people out of homelessness in a planned way and ending youth homelessness.

The long-term consequences of youth homelessness include an increased risk of exploitation, violence, physical and sexual abuse, more involvement with police and the justice system, stress, depression, anxiety disorders, suicide and drug use.

“A targeted provincial strategy to address youth homelessness would not only curtail the negative consequences, but create new opportunities to improve the lives of many young people,” said 91��ɫ U Professor , director of the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness.

The proposed provincial strategy would help increase housing stability for youth through rehousing or family reunification and prevent homelessness through education, enhanced family supports, as well as access to education, income and employment opportunities.

While Ontario has made strides and commitments toward eliminating homelessness in general – it has committed to ending chronic homelessness in 10 years – the policy brief points to how it can make a real difference for youth. On any given night, there are some 6,500 homeless youth on the streets. “More than a third of young people who experience homelessness in Canada are from Ontario,” said Gaetz. “Now is the time to act as there are more supports and higher recognition of the need for a youth homelessness strategy than ever before.”

A youth homelessness strategy should involve community planning, program interventions, including prevention, helping young people exit homelessness, training and support, as well as a mental health and addictions strategy. In addition, there should be targeted support for youth sub-populations, such as Indigenous and LGBTQ2S youth, which make up 25 to 40 per cent of the youth homeless population. These strategies should include the support of other levels of government and involve working with community partners and the mobilization of knowledge.

According to Melanie Redman, Executive Director of A Way Home Canada, “Communities across Ontario are either engaged in developing plans to prevent and end youth homelessness, or are poised to do so. The province has a real opportunity to support communities in these efforts, but the province does not have to do it alone. If we take a Collective Impact approach to youth homelessness we will go further faster in ensuring community plans lead to real change.”

For many, the path to adult homelessness began when they were young. Addressing youth homelessness now would impact the number of homeless adults in the future, but more supports and services designed to prevent youth homelessness are needed to make this happen.

��is known for championing new ways of thinking that drive teaching and research excellence. Our 52,000 students receive the education they need to create big ideas that make an impact on the world. Meaningful and sometimes unexpected careers result from cross-discipline programming, innovative course design and diverse experiential learning opportunities. 91��ɫ students and graduates push limits, achieve goals and find solutions to the world's most pressing social challenges, empowered by a strong community that opens minds. 91��ɫ U is an internationally recognized research university – our 11 faculties and 24 research centres have partnerships with 200+ leading universities worldwide.

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Media Contact:

Sandra McLean, 91��ɫ Media Relations, 416-736-2100 ext. 22097 / sandramc@yorku.ca

The post New report calls on Ontario to step up and lead youth homeless strategy appeared first on News@91��ɫ.