Legislation to protect the sale of social housing
Manitoba must ensure that affordable housing created with public funds cannot be divested without first going through a provincial approval process.
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Bill 12: The Housing and Renewal Corporation Amendment Act
The Manitoba government introduced Bill 12 The Housing and Renewal Corporation Amendment Act in the 2025 spring legislative session. The Bill takes an important step forward by requiring government consent for the demolition, change of use, sale or transfer of buildings of a subset of non-market, social and affordable housing providers.
However the Right to Housing Coalition has identified a number of concerns about the Bill’s potential to effectively prevent and respond to the conditions that put such housing providers – as well as their tenants – at risk. Moreover, Bill 12 on its own does not protect the full stock of non-market, social and affordable housing in Manitoba.
The Manitoba government must take responsibility to ensure no net loss of the non-market, social and affordable housing stock.
Next steps
Bill 12 is expected to go to the Committee stage in Fall 2025, when members of the public will have the opportunity to make an oral or written submission about the Bill before it is considered by the Committee. It is at this stage that amendments to the Bill can be proposed and considered.
The Right to Housing Coalition is planning to speak to the committee. You can read about the Right to Housing Coalition’s recommendations for Bill 12 here. These have been shared with the Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness who introduced the Bill.
Background
Lions Place, a 287-unit affordable non-profit seniors housing building in downtown Winnipeg was sold to an Alberta-based publicly-traded residential real estate company in early 2023. This prompted the Right to Housing Coalition to call for legislation to prevent the sale of non-profit owned housing to the private sector in its Social Housing Action Plan for Manitoba.
During the fall 2023 provincial election, Wab Kinew and the NDP government committed to introducing legislation to prevent the type of situation that took place at Lions Place. It promised to put in place an oversight mechanism to ensure that affordable housing that has been created with the support of public funds cannot be divested without first going through a provincial approval process.