Municipal Election 2026:
Protecting Toronto’s Renters
"For tenants, a demoviction can mean losing a home, a community, a neighbourhood, and housing that may be impossible to replace at today's rents. Toronto has policies intended to protect tenants and preserve rental housing, but significant gaps remain. The next City Council has an opportunity to strengthen those protections and make preserving existing affordable rental housing a priority."
On October 26th, voters across Ontario will head to the polls to vote for the city they want to see. At the top of everyone's voting priorities is housing.
As a tenant organizing group tackling the mass displacement of renters through demoviction, we have created a tenant question and answer guide for renters to hold candidates accountable, and 6 priorities we want candidates to endorse.
Tenant Q&A Guide
The municipal election is an opportunity to ask candidates what they will do to protect renters in your neighbourhood, and across Toronto.
We've prepared a Tenant Q&A Guide with questions you can ask candidates about rental affordability, demovictions, tenant protections, preservation of rental housing, and displacement.
You don't need to be a policy expert. You can simply ask candidates what they will do to make sure renters can afford to stay in Toronto.
Find Toronto candidates here.
6 Priorities for Municipal Election Candidates
No Demovictions is a non-partisan tenant collective and doesn't endorse political candidates. However, we welcome candidates of all political affiliations to meaningfully engage with tenants and publicly support stronger protections against rental displacement.
Candidates can endorse our 2026 Demoviction Priorities for Toronto's next City Council. See below.
Our policy platform provides more detail on the problems facing tenants and the policy changes we believe are needed to protect Toronto's rental housing stock and prevent displacement.
These are our top 6 priorities for mayoral and city council candidates.
Protect all tenants affected by a rental demolition application.
Post-application tenants must have the same rights and entitlements as other tenants. Tenants should not lose their homes without meaningful protection simply because they moved into a building after a demolition application was submitted.
All tenants displaced by a demolition should be protected by Toronto's tenant relocation and assistance policies– not just tenants who happened to live in the building on the date the application was filed.
Strengthen tenant supports, especially for vulnerable tenants.
The Tenant Assistance Plan process can stretch over years and require tenants to navigate compensation, temporary housing, packing, moving, and eventually moving back into a new building. The City must provide stronger supports to help tenants navigate this process, with particular attention to seniors, people with disabilities, low-income households, families with children, newcomers, and tenants with limited transportation or social supports.
Equality is not equity: uniform compensation packages don't produce uniform outcomes.
Ensure tenants have a seat at the table.
Tenants must have meaningful opportunities to influence decisions about their homes and communities. That means meaningful engagement on measures to reduce displacement harms, the design and liveability of replacement units, preservation of important amenities, and how Section 37 community benefits are allocated.
Tenant engagement should be more than a consultation exercise after key decisions have already been made.
Preserve existing rental housing before it is lost.
Toronto should explore a right of first refusal for tenants and community-based housing organizations when rental buildings are being sold, placed into receivership, or otherwise at risk of leaving the rental housing stock.
This should be paired with increased funding for the City's MURA program, helping tenants and nonprofit housing providers acquire existing rental housing and preserve it as affordable housing in perpetuity.
Make sure replacement rental housing is actually protected.
RentSafeTO should be expanded to include replacement rental units. When purpose-built rental housing is demolished and replacement rental units are created within a new condominium development, those replacement units are currently outside RentSafeTO's protections.
As Toronto loses purpose-built rental buildings, we should be increasing tenant protections, not reducing them.
Track what happens to tenants and Toronto's rental housing stock.
Toronto cannot effectively protect tenants if it does not know what is happening to them. The City should establish a comprehensive, publicly accessible database tracking rental demolition applications from application through completion, including:
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the number and affordability of existing rental units;
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affordability terms for replacement units;
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tenant demographics and vulnerability indicators;
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redevelopment milestones;
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developer compliance with rental replacement and tenant assistance agreements; and
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tenant outcomes, including how many tenants ultimately realize their right to return.
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The City should also regularly evaluate whether its policies are actually preserving affordable and rent-controlled rental housing and sustaining tenancies.
