Press review of Late February

CORPIQ has had a prominent media presence during the second half of February. Let's recall the announcements made by Mayor Plante on the City of Montreal's right of pre-emption; her intention to move forward with a certification and a registry for landlords; and the unveiling of the numbers from the CMHC's report on the rental market, which led to debates on the price of rents in the province.

First, the City of Montreal is seeking a new right of pre-emption that would give it a greater opportunity to acquire land and buildings for social housing construction. A Radio-Canada article states that the notice of motion was scheduled for February 21 in order to proceed with its adoption in March. It didn't take long for the City of Longueuil to follow in its footsteps by demanding the same right from Premier Legault, as reported on the Radio-Canada website.

The topic of Clause F continued to generate media coverage and the availability of housing and rent. In fact, a few demonstrations by community organizations made the headlines. TVA Nouvelles reported that FRAPRU and other organizations were present near the offices of Prime Minister François Legault to demand the construction of social housing. It is in the wake of these events and the subject of the "housing crisis" that CORPIQ was asked for its opinion. As the executive director of CORPIQ recalls in a quote from Radio-Canada (Bas-St-Laurent), "It's like playing musical chairs and there used to be five players for ten chairs [...]. Today, we play the same game with ten chairs, but there are twelve people." As reported in several newspapers, some cities are experiencing a housing shortage, including Sherbrooke, Rimouski, Trois-Rivières, or even Victoriaville.

The release of CMHC's Rental Market Report on February 18 shed light on the actual figures for average rental costs, vacancy rates, and other statistics depicting the evolution of the rental market in 2021. As reported by La Presse, Montreal remains one of the most affordable cities despite one of the highest rent increases in the country. CORPIQ took the opportunity to publish a press release in which it reminds us that rent increases are modest despite a generalized rise in costs of all kinds.

Finally, the announcement by the City of Montreal that it wished to adopt a rent register and a certification of landlords of buildings with eight or more units has provoked a reaction from CORPIQ, which has led to be mentioned on several occasions in the media. Thus, CORPIQ's disappointment at not having been included in these steps was mentioned in La Presse, Radio-Canada, 98.5FM, CBC News and several other sources. As columnist Pierre-Yves McSween reminds us on 98.5FM in Montreal, the real basic problem remains the lack of housing supply.