Certainly rentals (even before the pandemic) were not being rented right away but the listing time in padmapper.com was usually not long (less than a month). I agree there's a change in the rental market, but in hot markets, there are no downward pressure on rents where there are still increasing returnees and interprovincial migrants.
This is definitely NOT true in Toronto, which is certainly a "hot market":
https://nowtoronto.com/news/toronto-rent-dropped-as-much-as-22-per-cent-downtown