Recently, the CAQ tabled Bill 31 at a parliamentary session. If passed, this bill would eliminate a tenant's ability to reassign their lease to a new tenant, doing away with the requirement that a landlord demonstrate a good reason for refusing a new tenant. Lease transfers are the last line of defence for tenants fighting Québec's skyrocketing rents, and the CAQ is seeking to rip it away. Additionally, lease transfers are used to help protect marginalized and low-income people from discrimination when trying to find housing. Discrimination is not acceptable and yet we hear of it happening all the time, with either minimal or no timely recourse. 

In defence of the bill, CAQ housing minister France-Elaine Duranceau declared that it is not up to a tenant to control rent increases, and that lease transfers infringe on the property rights of landlords. As someone with a long professional history in real estate, Minister Duranceau is incapable of recognizing the power imbalance between tenants and landlords. In fact, the CAQ as a whole is utterly out of touch with the issues of renters and the deeply rooted problems of the commodification of housing, and they cannot be counted on to see how bill 31 would disproportionately imperil poor, working-class, elderly and disabled Québecers.

As a labour union, AMUSE believes fiercely in protecting the rights of tenants. We fight for concessions from employers for more equitable pay to meet our basic needs, but these concessions mean nothing when we cannot afford to pay rent. The intersections of labour and housing are becoming increasingly apparent, especially with the efforts to casualize and create sweeping precarity within our workforce, and we accordingly call upon other labour unions to link arms in solidarity with housing rights activists, standing together in this collective fight to rightfully demand that our basic needs are met. Beset by ramping pressure from institutional players in housing and employment, low-income people have been left to fight two systems of power which are progressively producing intersecting issues. When we combine our efforts and lift each other up, we make ourselves stronger and better prepared to stand up against all forms of exploitation.

As a member of a union, you can support the fight against Bill 31 by:

  • Educating your members on housing rights and connecting them to their local housing committee for support

  • Building connections with housing committees in Montréal and surrounding areas and asking how we can help them

  • Starting new committees within your union that focus on these issues, or adding this topic to the agendas of existing committees

  • Using discretionary funding and other finances to help financially support the grassroots organizations fighting to preserve tenants' rights

We invite you to follow these groups and support their fight, as well as to sign the Québec Solidaire petition and do what you can to show up for tenants, workers, and the many others being harmed by the rollback of rights and basic needs that is happening daily.