The N.S. government won't release a report on tenancy enforcement. Opposition politicians are concerned

For years, tenants and landlords have decried the lack of enforcement within Nova Scotia's residential tenancies program. The province doesn't have an arm to regulate disputes or levy fines, which both sides say is a problem. 

Issues like landlords demanding illegal deposits and increasing rent above the province's rent cap, or tenants failing to pay their rent must go through a residential tenancies hearing and those decisions can only be enforced through small claims court.

Advocates on both sides say the process is cumbersome and can take months. 

Other provinces, like B.C. and Ontario, have enforcement systems for landlords and tenants in which trained officers can advise parties on disputes and have the power to issue fines.

In November 2022, the Houston government began to look into the issue, hiring Halifax-based Davis Pier Consulting to study Ontario's enforcement system. The consultants were tasked to come up with a comprehensive program design detailing the scope, structure and costs of implementing something similar in Nova Scotia.

The report was delivered to the province but it won't release it publicly, causing concern among opposition politicians. 

"I don't see any excuse in them not releasing that report," Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender said in an interview Tuesday.

"If that report says, 'Don't do it,' it would be good to understand why. If that report says that they should do it, then I think that would be vindication for a lot of people who have been fighting for it and would help us to understand the best way forward."

Colton LeBlanc, the minister responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act, confirmed to CBC News in May that his department had received the report.

CBC News requested a copy but a spokesperson for the department declined, saying: "We will release the details of the report publicly when we are in a position to do so."

CBC News then filed a request to obtain the report through freedom of information laws, which was denied on the grounds that the entire report is "advice by or for a public body or minister."

CBC News has appealed the decision not to release the report, but Nova Scotia's information and privacy commissioner said last month that her office doesn't have the resources or the authority to do its job properly and is dealing with a four-year backlog of cases. 

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the province said they anticipate the report will be released in the fall. 

Liberal Leader Zach Churchill said he is concerned that the report not being released shows the government doesn't know what to do next.