What is Canada's Renters' Bill of Rights?

It is a federal policy blueprint, the Blueprint for a Renters' Bill of Rights, built on four principles: ensuring everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home, fostering fairness and transparency, addressing inequity and discrimination, and safeguarding the system. It calls on provinces and territories to take measures such as standard lease agreements, published rental information, and protections against unfair rent increases and evictions.

Is the Renters' Bill of Rights law?

No. The Blueprint expresses the federal government's policy objectives and calls on provinces and territories to act. It does not itself give tenants enforceable rights. Your rights as a tenant come from your province's or territory's residential tenancy law.

How is the Renters' Bill of Rights tied to federal funding?

Budget 2024 proposed a $6 billion Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund. To access its $5 billion provincial and territorial stream, provinces and territories had to commit to key actions, including implementing measures from the Renters' Bill of Rights and Home Buyers' Bill of Rights.

What is the Tenant Protection Fund?

A federal fund proposed in Budget 2024 at $15 million over 5 years, for organizations that provide legal and information services to tenants and for tenants' rights advocacy groups.

Canada's Renters' Bill of Rights: What the Federal Blueprint Says

The federal Blueprint for a Renters’ Bill of Rights sets out what the Government of Canada wants renting to look like across the country. It isn’t a law and doesn’t give you rights you can enforce on its own. Residential tenancy is governed by provincial and territorial law, so the Blueprint is a set of principles and a list of measures it calls on provinces and territories to take. This page covers what it says and where your actual rights come from.

What the Blueprint is

The Blueprint notes that one-third of Canadians rent, and presents itself as part of the federal commitment to the right to adequate housing under the National Housing Strategy Act (2019). It describes itself as expressing “the Federal Government’s policy objectives”, aiming to build “a national consensus to protect renters”. It was last modified on September 16, 2024.

The four principles

1. Ensuring everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home

It calls on provinces, territories and others in the rental system to:

protect against instability in the rental market, for example through rental assistance, rent banks and protections against excessive rent increases
support rental housing for a range of needs, including students, families, seniors and people with accessibility requirements
modernize regulations to encourage long-term, affordable and non-market rental housing

2. Fostering fairness and transparency

standard processes and plain-language tools for renting, including standards for lease agreements, consistent background checks, and receipts for rent paid
making renting information available and uniform, including unit title, legal agent, rental history, rental pricing and state of repair
tracking and publicly reporting filings to increase rent or evict tenants, with the reasons
protecting and enforcing existing tenant rights, such as protection against forced evictions and continued tenancy when the unit changes

3. Addressing inequity and discrimination

identifying and addressing discrimination based on factors such as race, family composition or pet ownership
minimum standards for rental housing quality, maintenance, habitability, safety and climate resiliency
“proportionality” in lease terminations, rent increases and evictions (including renovictions), considering timing and fairness, especially for renters on fixed incomes, with disabilities or complex medical needs, or with school-aged children

4. Safeguarding the system

compulsory training for property owners and managers on their obligations
making sure tenants know their rights before signing a lease
timely complaint processes, including closing loopholes such as rent increases taken before an above-guideline increase is approved, shifting the onus to owners to prove grounds for ending a tenancy, legal aid for renters, and letting tribunals impose substantial penalties
deterrents for bad-faith actors who repeatedly engage in misconduct

It also asks each province and territory to publish an annual public report on how it is advancing renters’ rights.

How Budget 2024 tied it to funding

Budget 2024 proposed:

A Canada Housing Infrastructure Fund of $6 billion over 10 years. Provinces and territories could access its $5 billion stream only by committing to key actions, one of which was implementing measures from the Renters’ Bill of Rights and the Home Buyers’ Bill of Rights. Provinces had until January 1, 2025 to secure an agreement and territories until April 1, 2025; otherwise their allocation moved to the municipal stream.
A Tenant Protection Fund of $15 million over 5 years, for organizations that give tenants legal and information services and for tenants’ rights advocacy.

What each province committed to, and when, is set out in its own agreement, so check your province’s housing ministry for what has changed where you live.

Where your tenant rights come from

Your rights on rent increases, evictions, repairs, deposits and leases come from your province’s or territory’s tenancy law, and disputes go to its tenancy board or tribunal. For the details: