Manitoba Stronger Together
Manitoba Bill Analysis
Bill 13
The Residential Tenancies Amendment Act
Topic:
Housing and Tenancies
Sponsor:
Hon. Mintu Sandhu
Sponsor Position:
Minister of Public Service Delivery
Current Status:
Second Reading completed — awaiting committee
Date Introduced:
March 12, 2026
Offical Bill URL:
Hansard URL:
Plain Language Explanation
Bill 13 makes several separate changes to Manitoba's residential-tenancy system. It creates a mandatory provincial record of rental units and landlord or property-manager contact information. It gives an existing tenant at least 24 hours' written notice before the unit is shown to a prospective tenant. It requires the Director of Residential Tenancies to review rent-regulation rules by December 31, 2027 and at least every five years afterward, with public consultation and a report tabled in the Legislature. It also removes most tenant decisions and orders from public access after seven years, permits earlier removal in appropriate circumstances, broadens the circumstances in which administrative penalties may be issued, and doubles the maximum administrative penalty from $5,000 to $10,000. The bill itself does not set a new rent-increase guideline, reduce the amount recoverable through an above-guideline rent increase, or directly create new rental housing.
What Would It Change
Showing an occupied unit: The present Act allows a landlord to show a unit to a prospective tenant after notice of termination without using the standard written-entry notice. Bill 13 moves these showings under the existing written-notice rules, requiring the purpose and reasonable time of entry to be stated and notice to be given at least 24 hours and no more than two weeks before entry. • Rental-unit filing: Every landlord would have to file the unit address and description, the landlord's legal name and contact information, the contact information for the agent responsible for repairs, rent collection and receiving tenant documents, and any other information later prescribed by regulation. • Rent-regulation review: The Director must conduct the first review by December 31, 2027 and at least every five years thereafter, consult the public and the landlord-and-tenant advisory committee, report to the minister, and have the report tabled in the Assembly. • Tenant orders: Most decisions or orders against tenants would no longer be publicly available after seven years and could be removed earlier on application if the Director considers that appropriate. Orders involving impairment of safety or unlawful activity would not be automatically removed after seven years, but the tenant could apply for removal after seven years. • Administrative penalties: Failure to comply with any order made by the Director under the Act could attract an administrative penalty, and the maximum penalty would increase from $5,000 to $10,000.
Who Could Be Affected
Tenants; large and small landlords; owners of single rental units, secondary suites and multi-unit residential properties; property managers and agents responsible for repairs or rent collection; prospective tenants; the Residential Tenancies Branch; the Residential Tenancies Commission; organizations representing landlords and tenants; and people who use public Residential Tenancies Branch decisions when assessing rental history or researching tenancy disputes. The wording applies to each rental unit and does not expressly exempt a landlord with only one unit.
Why It Matters
The bill combines tenant privacy and entry protections with a major expansion of provincial rental-unit data collection and enforcement authority. The registry could give the Branch a more complete picture of Manitoba's rental market and improve its ability to identify the responsible landlord or agent. The five-year review creates a recurring public process for examining rent regulation. At the same time, important implementation details—what additional information will be collected, how the information will be used or disclosed, how compliance will be enforced, and how penalty amounts will be determined—are not settled in the bill itself.
New Government Powers
• The Director may require information to be filed for every rental unit and may determine the acceptable form and manner of filing. • Cabinet may prescribe additional information that landlords must file and may make regulations governing the filing requirement. • The Director gains discretion to remove a tenant decision or order from public access before seven years when the Director considers removal appropriate in the circumstances. • The Director may issue an administrative penalty when a person fails to comply with any order made by the Director under the Act, rather than only the narrower category of orders currently identified in section 193.1. • The maximum administrative penalty authority rises to $10,000. • The Director is required to conduct recurring reviews of rent regulation and public consultation.
Regulations Required
Regulations may specify additional rental-unit, landlord or agent information that must be filed; establish detailed filing requirements, forms or procedures; and determine the actual amounts of administrative penalties within the new $10,000 statutory maximum. Sections creating the unit-filing system and expanding the penalty provisions do not take effect until the government proclaims them. The bill does not provide the proclamation date or publish the supporting regulations in advance.
Potential Unintended Consequences
A complicated registration process or severe penalties for administrative errors could create a disproportionate burden for small landlords and may discourage some owners from offering secondary suites or informal rental units. If registry information is not easily available to tenants, the government may collect substantial personal and property data without fully achieving the stated tenant-contact benefit. If the data is publicly accessible without adequate controls, landlords and agents could face privacy or security risks. Removing older tenant orders may improve fairness but could also reduce information available to prospective landlords; this may lead to greater reliance on private screening services or more restrictive application practices. Broad discretion over early removal and penalties could produce inconsistent results unless regulations, published criteria and appeal safeguards are clear.
Questions and Concerns
1. Tenant access to registry information: The minister said the database would help tenants know whom to contact, but the bill does not expressly state what registry information a tenant may obtain, whether it will be searchable, or whether any of it will be public. 2. Privacy and security: The bill requires personal contact information for landlords and agents but does not set out access, disclosure, retention, correction or cybersecurity rules. 3. Scope: The duty applies to each rental unit and contains no express exemption or simplified process for a person renting one unit, a secondary suite, or a unit to a family member. 4. Additional information: Cabinet may prescribe other information without those data fields being debated in the bill. 5. Compliance costs: The minister stated that the government cost would be zero because an existing registry is already available, but no detailed implementation, staffing, privacy or landlord-compliance costing appears in the bill. 6. Penalty safeguards: The maximum doubles and the penalty power expands to any Director's order. The bill does not itself require a warning, cure period, repeated non-compliance or a distinction between inadvertent administrative error and deliberate refusal, although penalties remain appealable to the Commission and actual amounts are set by regulation. 7. Suppression of orders: Early removal depends on whether the Director considers it appropriate, but the bill supplies no criteria and makes the decision final and non-appealable. 8. Rent affordability claims: Bill 13 requires a future review but does not itself change the rent guideline, above-guideline increase calculations or rental-housing supply.
MST Analysis
Bill 13 contains several reasonable and potentially useful reforms, particularly the 24-hour written-notice requirement, the recurring review of rent regulation, and a time limit on public access to most historical tenant orders. A reliable rental-unit and landlord-contact record could also be useful, but the bill is incomplete on the most important operational questions. It creates the legal obligation to provide information without establishing in the statute who may access the registry, how the information will be protected, what additional information may later be demanded, or what graduated compliance process will apply. The administrative-penalty amendment is broader than a simple increase from $5,000 to $10,000: it permits a penalty for failure to comply with any Director's order under the Act. That may be justified for persistent non-compliance, but the statute should distinguish deliberate or repeated refusal from a minor or promptly corrected filing error. The debate also mixed Bill 13 with separate proposed rent-regulation changes. The public record should clearly distinguish this bill's actual text from any future regulation that may alter rent guidelines or above-guideline increases.
Potential Benefits
• Tenants receive clearer privacy and scheduling protection before prospective-tenant showings. • The Residential Tenancies Branch may obtain more reliable contact information for landlords and repair or property-management agents. • A more complete rental-unit inventory could support enforcement, emergency contact, research and evidence-based housing policy. • Recurring public reviews may improve transparency and create regular opportunities to assess whether rent-regulation rules remain fair and effective. • Removing older tenant orders may reduce permanent reputational harm from dated disputes and support rehabilitation and privacy. • Stronger administrative penalties may improve compliance with repair, safety and other Branch orders.
MST Conclusions
MST's recommended position is support in principle, subject to amendments and full disclosure of the supporting regulations before final passage. The Legislature should require clear rules for tenant access to registry information, privacy and data security, correction of inaccurate records, and public reporting on how the database is used. It should establish a warning and reasonable cure period for first-time or inadvertent filing violations, publish factors governing penalty amounts, and consider simplified compliance for small landlords without weakening tenant protections. Statutory criteria and written reasons should govern early removal of tenant orders, with a fair reconsideration or appeal mechanism. The five-year rent-regulation review should examine tenant affordability, maintenance, rental supply, new construction, small-landlord impacts, above-guideline increases and exemptions rather than focusing on only one side of the rental market.
How Citizens Can Respond
Bill 13 has completed Second Reading and is awaiting committee, so Manitobans may register now to make an oral presentation or submit a written brief through the Office of the Clerk. Citizens may ask the government to publish the draft regulations, registry access and privacy rules, projected implementation costs, penalty guidelines, small-landlord compliance measures, and the criteria for early removal of tenant orders. They may also contact their MLA and the Minister of Public Service Delivery. Suggested committee questions include: Who can access the registry? What additional information may be prescribed? Will a landlord receive notice and time to correct a filing error before a penalty? What factors determine a penalty up to $10,000? What evidence supports the claim that implementation will cost government nothing? What criteria will govern removal of orders and why is there no appeal?