France-Élaine Duranceau

Ms. Duranceau made headlines in June 2023 when she tabled her first bill to amend the Housing Act. Bill 31 seeks to eliminate the right of tenants to transfer their leases. Previously, tenants were entitled to do so unless the landlord had good cause to reject the potential transferee,^[2] and allows landlords to increase prices on newly built housing without regard to the Administrative Tribunal on Housing's calculations for rent increases.^[3] It was introduced at the end of the spring 2023 parliamentary session. The bill has stirred controversy, given the escalating housing crisis in Quebec.

As a former real estate broker, the Minister of Housing believes that it is not up to tenants to decide on rent prices, and that lease transfers should no longer be allowed. Minister Duranceau admitted to Radio-Canada radio that she was unaware of the number of tenants expected to be homeless on July 1, 2023. The start date for an annual lease in Quebec is generally July 1.^[4] This has led to many ongoing questions about a potential conflict of interest and calls for the Minister to reisgn.^[5][6]

In November 2023, Duranceau was found to have "abusively favoured the personal interests of one of her friends (a real estate lobbyist)," by the ethics commissioner Ariane Mignolet. The Parti Québécois and Québec solidaire linked the breach of ethics with the minister’s Bill 31 on housing. “What this reveals today is not only that there was a failure on this level at the start of the mandate, it also reveals that the minister’s proximity to the real-estate developer community has also continued, taking into account Bill 31, where we very clearly see the minister’s bias toward real-estate projects, real-estate owners at the expense of tenants,” said PQ MNA Joël Arseneau.^[7]