Last October’s prorogation of the legislature stalled the much‑anticipated co‑operative housing eviction reform bill.   Building on the momentum this issue had in the fall session, just a few short days after the new session began, Bill 14, the eviction reform bill, was given first reading (February 27, 2013).

You can read the bill called ‘An Act to Amend the Co‑operative Corporations Act and the Residential Tenancies Act, 2006 in respect of non‑profit housing co‑operatives and to make consequential amendments’ here (pdf).

Bill 14 has the support of all three parties, as its predecessor did before prorogation.  And representatives of each party took the opportunity to applaud the good work of Co‑operative housing.  PC Housing Critic, Steve Clark, even went so far as to promote the idea of legislation to grow and expand co‑ops:

How can we put in place in legislation an opportunity to grow co-ops, to expand co-ops, to make sure that this unique gem that we have in the province can be increased and that more people can be associated with it? I think too many times we spin our wheels with some procedure where, in fact, if we all sat down and looked at the success that co-ops provide, I think it would be a great opportunity for us.

This would certainly be a welcome initiative!

Debate on the 2^nd reading resumed March 19th.   Stay tuned to the Iler Campbell LLP blog for more news about Bill 14 as it works its way through the legislative process.

Filed in: Co-operative Law

Tags: Co-ops, Evictions, Housing Co-operatives, Law reform