The Manitoba Legislative Assembly is considering additional circumstances in which residential tenants could break their leases without legal or financial encumbrances. A proposal presented in a recent private member’s bill would add the new category of “household violence” to the list of grounds recognized in the provincial Residential Tenancies Act.

This would go beyond the scope of the current definitions of domestic and sexual violence and stalking to encompass a broader range of harms, including: actual or attempted physical abuse; psychological or emotional abuse through intimidation, harassment, coercion, unreasonable restrictions on financial or personal autonomy or destruction of personal property; or exposing people under the age of 18 to any of those behaviours. The bill also proposes that a landlord could be ordered to pay a tenant’s “reasonable moving expenses” if it is determined that the landlord is responsible for the household violence necessitating the lease termination.

The bill’s sponsor, Brad Michaleski, represents the Dauphin constituency and is a member of Manitoba’s governing Conservative party. During the recent debate accompanying the second reading of the bill, he noted that the new definition would give more people in vulnerable situations a legal tool to relocate and avoid lingering expenses from the residence they’d be leaving.

“In a lot of these situations, people are living in a desperate situation where they don’t have the means to get out of their rental agreement,” he said. “They’re faced with the uncertainty of having to pay double rent, and in a lot of cases, they’re living in an environment where the kids are seeing and exposed to this.”

As with the existing definitions of violence, tenants would be required to obtain sign-off from Manitoba Justice Victim Services to qualify. “There’s a number of professionals that can provide backing confirmation for tenants that are choosing this path,” Michaleski said.