What's coming in 2026 for EI rates and rent increases

As 2026 approaches, it's time to look ahead at some changes that will affect workers and tenants in Ontario.

New EI rates

The highest amount that workers can get from Employment Insurance (EI) goes up on January 1, 2026.

Type of EI benefit	2026 highest weekly amount	2025 highest weekly amount
Regular, sickness, caregiving, maternity, and standard parental benefits	$729	$695
Extended parental benefits	$437	$417

People can apply for EI online or at a Service Canada office. It usually takes more than 4 weeks for Service Canada to review an application and start paying benefits.

Rent increases

The rules about rent increases are complicated. To learn which rules apply, tenants need to know if:

they're covered by the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA)
they have an agreement with their landlord to add extra services or space
their landlord has applied for a rent increase above the annual guideline

They also need to know the age of the building or unit that they live in.

General rule about rent increases

For tenants protected by the RTA, a landlord must wait 12 months after the tenant moves in before raising the rent. And they can raise the rent only once every 12 months after that.

A landlord must also give the tenant written notice of the rent increase at least 90 days before the day the rent goes up.

For example, tenants whose rents are going up on January 1, 2026, should have received their written notice no later than October 3, 2025.

Landlords should use one of the Landlord and Tenant Board (LTB) rent increase forms. The most common form is the Form N1: Notice of Rent Increase.

If a landlord does not use the LTB form, the notice might still be valid. But it must include all the information that's on the LTB form.

Rent increase guideline

For most tenants covered by the RTA, there's a limit to how much their rent can increase each year. This is called the rent increase guideline or the guideline.

The guideline is set each year by the Government of Ontario. For 2026, it's 2.1%.

Above guideline increases

Even if the guideline applies, a landlord can increase the rent by a higher amount if:

the tenant agrees to the increase
the landlord applies to the LTB for a rent increase above the guideline and the LTB agrees

When the guideline does not apply

For some tenants covered by the RTA, the guideline does not apply. That means a landlord can increase the rent by any amount, unless the rental agreement says something different.

But a landlord can still raise the rent only once every 12 months.

This affects the following types of housing if no one lived there on or before November 15, 2018:

a building,
a new addition to a building,
a land lease community, or
a mobile home park.

And it affects tenants who live in a self-contained apartment in a house that was created after November 15, 2018. But this is true only if the house had no more than 2 units before that date and either:

the owner lived in another part of the house when the unit was created, or
the new apartment was created in what had been an unfinished space, like a basement or attic.

The guideline also does not apply to most subsidized housing.

Tenants not covered by the RTA

Some tenants are not protected by the RTA at all. For example, this includes tenants who must share a kitchen or bathroom with their landlord, or the landlord's spouse, parent, or child.

It also includes tenants in some shared housing situations. Read more in CLEO's Do you share rental housing?

Those tenants should check what their rental agreement says about rent increases. If the agreement does not say anything, their landlord can increase the rent by any amount and at any time.

Getting legal help

It's a good idea for tenants to get legal help if:

their landlord wants to raise the rent above the rent increase guideline, or
they believe their landlord did not give them enough notice about the increase.

Community legal clinics can help tenants who have low incomes.

And Steps to Justice lists more legal services for tenants.