Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I want to thank all the witnesses for joining us this morning.
Mr. Irwin, you submitted a brief to this committee on the financialization of the real estate market. You argued that no single player in the market has the power to raise rents above the rules of supply and demand. We agree that this is a highly neoliberal view.
Last April, CBC reported that, in Ontario, a mere 20 companies were responsible for over half the requests for an exemption from the province's guidelines for limiting rent increases. Moreover, most landlords own small properties. For a number of people, this showed that a major concentration of the real estate market is taking place. A single company, Starlight Investments—one of the largest housing stock owners in Ontario—accounts for 10% of all requests for rent increases above the allowable limits. These investment funds and the large corporations that you represent submitted over half of all the requests for rent increases above the allowable limits in Ontario. These requests must usually be justified by dramatic increases in municipal taxes or urgent repair and renovation needs.
Do you think that these requests for rent increases above their province's allowable limits are made in good faith? Do they show a lack of investment in maintaining the quality of these units, which then require a considerable rent increase that significantly affects tenants? Don't your members sometimes fail to maintain and renovate their apartments in order to make the most profit as quickly as possible? They then urgently say that they must ask for a rent increase above the allowable limits. Otherwise, they can't rent out their apartments. What's your take on this? I think that these figures are alarming.