On April 4 I gave the following members statement in the Nova Scotia Legislature:
On March 7th, tenants gathered for an ACORN rally calling on this government to ban landlords from only using fixed-term leases. As I’m sure we all know, fixed-term leases end on a predetermined date. They circumvent the need for a landlord to have a good reason to evict someone, and they provide a way to get around the temporary rent caps. One of the tenants present at this ACORN demonstration was Dartmouth North constituent Margaret Anne McHugh, a senior who herself has a fixed term lease. Margaret Annetold Global News that she and other tenants in her building on fixed-term leases were living in fear. As a senior, Margaret Anne is on a fixed income, and worries that she, her partner, and her fellow senior neighbours could be thrown out and replaced by someone who can pay more rent. Then where would they go that they could afford? That this could and does often happen is a failure of the system. All of us in this Chamber must heed the calls of constituents like Margaret Ann McHugh and make the needed changes to end the fixed term lease loophole.