Summary#

Bill 204, the Helping Tenants and Small Businesses Act, 2020, became Ontario law as Chapter 23 of the Statutes of Ontario, 2020. It amends several existing Acts, including the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006, and adds a temporary rule to Ontario’s COVID-19 reopening law. Its stated goal is to help tenants and small businesses; it also changes how municipal voters’ lists are prepared.

• Residential rents: It set the rent-increase guideline for 2021 at zero and barred most rent increases during that year, with specified exceptions.
• Commercial rents: For a limited period, landlords who met certain criteria tied to the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance program could not use certain methods to enforce rent arrears. The rules did not erase rent debt and stopped applying to specified actions once a landlord was approved for that assistance.
• Municipal elections: The Chief Electoral Officer must maintain a permanent register that includes people eligible to vote in municipal elections. From 2024, the Officer takes over preparing preliminary municipal voters’ lists; municipal clerks still have duties to update lists.
• COVID-19 gatherings: Police, special constables and First Nations Constables may order premises temporarily closed if attendance exceeds the limit in a continued COVID-19 order. Hosts or organizers who exceed the limit can face an offence and substantial penalties.
• Other changes: The Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (MPAC) must provide election information to the Chief Electoral Officer free of charge. The Act also removes MPAC’s role in preparing municipal election enumerations.

What it means for you#

• Residential tenants and landlords: During 2021, landlords generally could not raise rent, even if they had given notice before the law received Royal Assent. Exceptions included certain rent increases agreed to by the tenant, some increases approved by the Landlord and Tenant Board, and specified mobile-home or land-lease site increases. A landlord could give notice during 2021 for an increase to take effect after the freeze.
• Commercial tenants and landlords: The temporary protections applied only to tenancies where the landlord met the stated assistance-program criteria. They blocked rent-arrears possession orders from taking effect during the period, and barred re-entry and seizure of goods for rent arrears. They did not cancel arrears. Landlords who had re-entered or seized goods between September 1, 2020 and the start of the period had to restore possession or pay damages if restoration was not possible, and return goods that remained unsold.
• People organizing gatherings: A person who hosts or organizes an event over the applicable attendance limit could be convicted. If an owner or occupier was present, they were presumed to be hosting or organizing unless there was evidence otherwise. Individuals found at premises ordered closed must promptly leave; residents are exempt from that requirement.
• Municipal voters and election officials: Municipal clerks must obtain preliminary lists from the Chief Electoral Officer and continue specified list-updating work. The permanent register can be updated with a person’s information, subject to the rules in the Act. People may request that information be redacted if the Chief Electoral Officer reasonably believes disclosure could endanger their life, health or security.
• General public: The Act does not directly change taxes, create a new tenant benefit, or forgive rent arrears.

Money#

No cost estimate is provided in the supplied material. No publicly available information.

• MPAC must provide specified election information to the Chief Electoral Officer without charging for it.
• The Chief Electoral Officer receives new municipal-election responsibilities, but the supplied material gives no staffing or cost estimate.
• The bill does not itself provide commercial tenants with rent assistance; the commercial protections depended on eligibility under a separate federal program.

What is unclear#

• The supplied material does not include the parent Acts or later amendments, so it does not establish the full baseline or verify what rules apply today.
• The commercial protections’ period ended on October 30, 2020, or could have ended earlier by regulation. The material does not say whether an earlier date was set.
• The bill does not spell out how the referenced rent-assistance eligibility criteria would be assessed in every case.
• It does not set out a review or appeal process for a temporary closure order.
• Some election-related schedules were to start on dates set by proclamation; those dates are not provided. The election changes were designed to apply to elections starting on or after January 1, 2024.

Case for#

• A zero rent-increase guideline gave residential tenants a clear limit for 2021, including where notice had already been given.
• Temporarily blocking certain enforcement actions could give qualifying small-business tenants time without forgiving the rent owed.
• A permanent register and a single provincial office preparing municipal preliminary lists could make election administration more consistent across municipalities.
• Temporary closure powers and offences gave officials tools to respond when gatherings exceeded limits in COVID-19 orders.

Case against#

• The residential freeze limited rent increases for a full calendar year, while the Act does not provide compensation to landlords for that limit.
• Commercial protections were narrow: they depended on a landlord’s connection to the federal assistance program and did not remove rent arrears.
• The bill gives police and other named officers closure powers, but the supplied text does not describe a process to challenge a closure order.
• The election changes assign new work and require free data transfers, but the material gives no cost estimate or staffing plan.