Our view on this is that we need tax incentives, like the good old tax credit. As we've told you, it's difficult for people to renovate rental properties, given that they generate little net income, it costs more and you have to borrow more.
Another advantage of encouraging the renovation of rental housing is that it would greatly improve energy efficiency, and we would greatly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from older buildings, particularly those built before 1980, because the standards were different then.
In Quebec, in addition to this difficulty in renovating housing due to the economic climate, the Tribunal administratif du logement has rules for setting rents that make major renovation work very unprofitable.
To give you an idea of how absurd this is, the payback period for major renovations varies according to the rate of return on guaranteed investment certificates, plus 1%. At the height of the pandemic, this meant payback periods of up to 50 years. But no renovation work has a useful life of more than 50 years. So there's a real pitfall there.
Naturally, it's a provincial provision. On the federal side, we give tax credits or grants to homeowners for renovations that improve energy efficiency. Why shouldn't we offer such incentives to rental property owners too? I think it would all add up.