Delays at the Régie du Logement – Adding commissioners was not enough

The appointment of four commissioners in 2014 to allow the Régie du logement the hearing of more cases has not yielded the expected results. According to CORPIQ, this failure to reduce judicial delays justifies the need for a thorough reform of this court.

After the first 11 months of the 2015-2016 fiscal year, the Régie du logement’s average delay before the first hearing is still similar to the one of the previous year:

	2015-2016	2014-2016
Fixing of the Rent	5,8 months	6,0 months
Non-payment of rent	1,5 months	1,4 months
Urgent cases	1,8 months	1,9 months
Priority cases	16,6 months	14,9 months
General cases	21,1 months	20,7 months

At an unprecedented press conference held with great pageantry by the operating minister at the Régie du logement in October 2014, the government of Quebec announced that the new commissioners dedicated to the non-payment of rent cases will help free the administrative judges to hear 2300 more civil cases per year. The past year’s results show that the plan did not achieve the promised performance targets. Only 700 more rulings were issued in civil cases (other than non-payment or fixing of the rent), for a total of 13 785 in eleven months. Not to mention that the court actually received 400 less applications to be processed.

By the end of spring, the Quebec Auditor General will publish a report on the management of claims processing at the Régie du logement. If he also comes to the conclusion that the court no longer enables landlords and tenants to seek justice within a reasonable time, this report could push the Couillard government to finally establish a reform that has been promised many times before by his predecessors.