Earlier this year, the City of Victoria advanced its draft 10-year Official Community Plan, Victoria 2050, to include a formal Tenant Protection Bylaw that tightens property owner’s duties and responsibilities towards their tenants. The bylaw includes some key additional requirements such as providing tenants displaced by redevelopment projects with financial compensation, relocation assistance, and the statutory right of first refusal to return once construction is complete.
The City is further embedding these protections within a dedicated Development Permit Area. The proposed bylaw would also ensure that property owners must address tenant support measures at the earliest design and approval stages.
This move would place Victoria alongside other Canadian municipalities that have strengthened tenant and renoviction protections, including Kitchener, Hamilton, and others.
Bylaw Requirements
If passed as proposed, the Tenant Protection Bylaw would include the following requirements. Any permit application that would lead to the loss of existing rental units, whether in purpose-built buildings or secondary-market homes, would trigger a Tenant Assistance Plan (TAP). Property owners would need to work with tenants to develop this plan before permits are issued.
Early and Ongoing Communication
Applicants must notify tenants of redevelopment plans before filing applications, gather tenant input in the TAP, share the final plan, and provide written updates at least every three months during the review process.
Compensation on a Sliding Scale
In addition to the one-month notice required under the Residential Tenancy Act, tenants receive extra rent-equivalent payments based on how long they have lived in the unit. Someone with under a year’s tenancy receives two months’ rent; someone with up to five years, three months; and so on up to six months for tenants of twenty years or more. For market-rate buildings, the compensation is based on whichever is higher: the tenant’s current rent or CMHC’s average market rent.
Relocation Support
Given the region’s low vacancy rate, the TAP must offer each impacted household at least three comparable housing options within the Capital Regional District. These units must match in size and rent and ideally be in the same neighbourhood. Developers who own other rental properties are encouraged to offer those units first.
Moving Assistance
All moving costs must be covered, with hands-on help coordinating the move.
Right of First Refusal
When the new building is ready, each displaced tenant can return to a comparable unit. In market developments, returning tenants pay 20 percent below the starting market rent. In non-market projects, tenants must meet the new building’s eligibility rules.
Detailed Reporting
Before any occupancy permit is granted, applicants must submit a final TAP report. This report summarizes compensation paid, relocation outcomes, and right-of-first-refusal offers, supported by an initial rent roll and tenure records collected before the application.
Comprehensive Tenant Coverage
Anyone living in the building when the permit application is filed is covered, even if they move out voluntarily after the application but before receiving a formal notice. For projects displacing more than fifty units, an independent Tenant Relocation Coordinator (TRC) is mandatory; smaller projects may also require one if many tenants face extreme housing need.
Implications for Development Projects
For those undertaking residential redevelopment, the TPB introduces clear upfront requirements. Tenant support measures will need to be budgeted, scheduled and reported on as part of every permit application. Early engagement with tenants and timely submissions of Tenant Assistance Plans will become standard practice. While these obligations add steps to the approval process, they also reduce the risk of legal challenges, reputational harm, and enforcement penalties down the line.
Enforceability through a Development Permit Area
Victoria will embed the TPB within its Official Community Plan update (known as Victoria 2050) by creating a specific Tenant Protection DPA. Unlike advisory policies, a DPA allows the city to make tenant-support rules a condition of any development permit. This change strengthens compliance oversight and reduces reliance on general bylaw enforcement. As a result, applicants will need to address tenant impacts at the earliest design and application stages.
Context within Victoria 2050
The new TPB and its DPA form one piece of Victoria’s draft Official Community Plan, a blueprint guiding growth to 2050. This plan seeks a balance between increasing housing density and preserving community character. By including tenant protections alongside updated heritage guidelines, streamlined permit areas, and phased zoning reform, Victoria 2050 aims to embed social equity into its land-use framework. Under its vision, complete communities around transit nodes will be matched with protections for residents.
Background
In spring 2024, British Columbia amended its Community Charter and Local Government Act to allow municipalities to create Tenant Protection Bylaws (TPBs). These amendments enable the City of Victoria to create binding regulations for tenant protections. The City is also tying the TPB to a dedicated Development Permit Area (DPA), to ensure that any project requiring a permit, and resulting in the loss of rental units, must comply with tenant-support rules. The goal is to reduce the financial strain and social disruption renters face when older apartments or houses are slated for redevelopment.
Consultation
After Victoria City Council directed staff in November 2024 to draft the new bylaw, Victoria spent seven months gathering input. Tenant advocates, people who had already been displaced, and members of the building industry all shared their priorities. Tenants emphasized the need for clear, frequent communication and an independent coordinator to handle relocations. Builders noted challenges in finding experienced coordinators and suggested ways to expand the pool.
Next Steps
By April 2025, consultation feedback confirmed strong support for enforceable tenant protections. Staff are now preparing a draft TPB and DPA for council approval. Victoria aims to present the TPB and Tenant Protection DPA to Council in Summer 2025.
Once approved, the public hearing process will finalize the regulations. If adopted, Victoria will join a growing number of BC municipalities in implementing more tenant-focused policies. More information is available on the City of Victoria website.