LANG WILL NOT HELP LANDLORDS OR TENANTS
NDP housing critic Steve Cardiff says Community Services minister Archie Lang has no intention of changing the Landlord and Tenant Act. Cardiff has been asking questions of the minister about the act for several years.
"The minister has done an internal review, he’s had input from the public, and today is still refusing to revise this ancient, cumbersome act," Cardiff said. "Today he has admitted by his replies to my questions in the House that he is prepared to do nothing."
The Landlord and Tenant Act was proclaimed by the Commissioner in 1972, when legislation in the Yukon was called Ordinances. It has had only a few unimportant amendments since, dealing with things like interest rates. Two years ago, the minister said his department was doing an internal review of the act. Six months ago, he said the review was being critiqued. In February, a volunteer group did an evaluation of the act and made several recommendations for change.
"Mr. Lang’s replies to my questions today give me no comfort that anything will happen any time soon," Cardiff said. Lang repeated his earlier replies about studying the review and the evaluation.
There are no minimum health standards for housing in the act, and the process for eviction is unfair, according to the evaluators of the act. The language, Cardiff noted, is "archaic" and "the butt of jokes." Cardiff adds the New Democrats have received many disturbing complaints from tenants about abuses of the act.
"The minister’s inaction after the work that has been done makes me wonder why he is not acting in support of many of his constituents," Cardiff commented.
"Lang keeps saying, ‘We are working on it’," Cardiff said. "Well, he has been working on it for six and a half years and there has been nothing for people living in substandard housing. It’s another hurry up and wait mode from this government."