Food banks across Ontario are sounding the alarm over Bill 60, warning that proposed changes to tenant rights could dramatically increase evictions and worsen the province’s already severe hunger crisis. More than 70 food banks and community service organizations — including the York Region Food Network — co-signed an open letter expressing deep concern that the bill would make it “faster and easier to evict tenants.” Their letter highlights several provisions that would restrict tenants’ ability to repay rental arrears, limit the defences available during eviction hearings, and curb the right to appeal Landlord and Tenant Board rulings.
The North York Harvest Food Bank delivered the letter directly to Queen’s Park on Monday, joined by activists and MPPs. Spokesperson Chiara Padovani said the message to the government is urgent and unmistakable: frontline providers cannot keep up with surging demand. She noted that while officials routinely visit food banks for holiday photo-ops, they must now listen to the sector’s warnings that “things are really bad.”
Padovani stressed that Ontario needs legislation that reduces poverty and hunger, not measures that risk pushing more residents into homelessness. The York Region Food Network echoed the concerns, pointing out that food insecurity in the region has sharply worsened. Nearly one in five York households now struggles to afford food — a dramatic rise from one in nine in 2019 — driven by soaring housing costs and wages that have not kept pace with the cost of living.
Ontario surpassed one million food bank users in 2024 for the first time in its history, and service providers fear Bill 60 could push those numbers even higher.
