There is no justification for delaying a ban on evictions
The delay will harm hundreds if not thousands of Ontarians and cause additional preventable deaths as the government’s own modelling shows, writes Doris Grinspun.
With a solemn face and in a sombre tone, Premier Doug Ford told the people of Ontario last Monday that the coming shutdown was all about their health and the capacity of hospitals. But as it turns out the delay of the shutdown to Dec. 26, alongside the Premier’s own explanation — clearing business inventory before Christmas — shows it’s all about business. Nurses have a message for our premier: The inventory of illness and resulting deaths of Ontarians is not worth the inventory in any store.
There is no doubt the delay will harm hundreds if not thousands of Ontarians and cause additional preventable deaths as the government’s own modelling shows.
Nurses are taking the extra days to again call on the Premier to ensure he declares the eviction moratorium the government and all opposition parties unanimously voted for two weeks ago. With over 7,000 eviction cases having been heard by Landlord Tenant Board through November and another 4,500 cases scheduled for December, and COVID-19 continuing to rage across the province, such a reinstatement is urgently needed.
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Preventing evictions is not just about providing desperate economic relief for tenants; it is also about their health. In fact, it is a matter of public health. The choices we force on those evicted from their homes all run counter to the public health measures we have imposed (as it was with the delay on the lockdown). The premier must act in a consistent way. This means that if he is imploring Ontarians to stay home, then he must ensure they have a home in which to stay in. If he is asking people to keep physically distant and bubbled, he cannot also force people to crowd in on others and burst bubbles. And, it means he must act now to prevent putting people out on the street.
If COVID-19 was the cause of the housing crisis in Ontario, perhaps a delay in implementation of the eviction moratorium would be understandable. But that is not the case. Ontario’s housing crisis has been decades in the making. Nearly half of all renters in Ontario live on less than $40,000 a year, while paying some of the highest rents across the country in places such as Toronto, Ottawa, Kingston, Peterborough, Hamilton, London and Kitchener. Ontario’s Federation of Rental-Housing Providers estimate, based on monthly surveys of their landlord-members, that nearly 100,000 households have been unable to pay their full rent since the pandemic started. With almost half of Canada’s tenants having less than a month’s rent in savings that can come as no surprise.
To know the effectiveness of a public health measure that can assist in fighting back against COVID-19 and to choose to not use it takes us beyond politics to matters of ethics. In those terms, the choices ought to be clear and seemed to be in evidence on that day MPPs in the legislature said “yes” in unanimity to reinstating a moratorium on evictions. When we can save lives, we must. When we can protect health, we should. When we can reduce the burden on, and risk to, those who step forward everyday — as they have for the last 11 months — to save lives and protect our health, we ought to. When we can do something that will stifle this pandemic, then we must act with urgency. The premier’s lockdown delay was simply reckless. Delaying the eviction moratorium is unethical. We call on the government to reinstate a moratorium on evictions immediately.
Dr. Doris Grinspun, RN, is CEO of the Registered Nurses’ Association of Ontario
