Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
Community Housing Policy Branch
777 Bay St., 14th Floor
Toronto ON M7A 2J3
July 22, 2020
TO: Service Managers
FROM: Peter Kiatipis, Director, Community Housing Policy Branch
RE: Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020
On July 22, 2020, the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020 received Royal Assent in the Ontario Legislature.
The Act contains amendments to the Housing Services Act, 2011 and Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 to deliver on commitments under the government’s Community Housing Renewal Strategy and Housing Supply Action Plan. It also contains amendments to the Building Code Act, 1992 to improve building code services to the public and building sector, and includes the Ontario Mortgage and Housing Corporation Repeal Act, 2020.
The included amendments to the Housing Services Act, 2011 are part of the second stage of the government’s Community Housing Renewal Strategy – a multi-year strategy to stabilize and grow Ontario’s community housing sector.
Amendments to the Housing Services Act, 2011 are broad and enabling, intended to provide a streamlined legislative framework for community housing that will incent non-profit and cooperative housing providers to stay in the housing system once their original agreements and mortgages end and make it easier for Service Managers and housing providers to meet the housing needs of their communities.
Now that the Act has been passed by the Legislature, specific details need to be developed in regulation. The government is committed to working with sector partners to develop the details in regulation on how the new legislative provisions will work on the ground in communities.
A copy of the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020 will be available on the Ontario eLaws website shortly (www.ontario.ca/laws).
Attached to this memo is a plain language Info Sheet that summarizes amendments that have been made to the Housing Services Act, 2011 through the Protecting Tenants and Strengthening Community Housing Act, 2020.
We ask that you please distribute this Info Sheet to housing providers in your service area and that you confirm with your regional Municipal Services Office after it has been distributed.
Thank you for your ongoing partnership and support as we work to achieve key commitments under the Community Housing Renewal Strategy to sustain, repair, and grow the community housing sector.
We look forward to continuing to work with you in the months ahead.
Sincerely,
Peter Kiatipis, Director, Community Housing Policy Branch, Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing
