Rent controls would a great way of bringing apartment construction to a halt and driving up unemployment in Ontario.  Even the development of condominiums - and the newer ones have been bought up in large part by investors in recent years - would slow down considerably. Anyone who was around back in 1976, when rent controls came in originally, and in 1986, when they were extended to all residential rentals - should recall how they led to major shortages of rental apartments in our major cities, especially Toronto. Anyone who thinks that extending rent controls now would be a great idea either has a short memory or wasn't around to see how they failed before the changes brought in by the Harris government.  The current Liberal government is now panicking and will resort to almost anything in an attempt to buy votes before the 2018 election.