Tenants’ rights groups welcome new rent control legislation, but call for more protections [video]

The provincial government has introduced legislation that would limit rent increases to three per cent annually, fulfilling a major campaign promise on the second day of the Legislative Assembly under Premier Susan Holt.

Tenants’ rights advocates who have pushed for rent control welcomed the news, but said more changes will be necessary to resolve the ongoing affordable housing crisis in New Brunswick. The bill, tabled on Wednesday by Housing Minister David Hickey, is expected to pass swiftly through the Liberal-majority legislature and will come into effect Feb. 1.

A spokesperson for the NB Coalition for Tenants’ Rights said that without provisions limiting rent increases between tenants, it will ultimately fail to ensure the affordability of housing in New Brunswick.

“Our housing struggles are not going to end with this,” said Matthew Hayes, a professor of sociology at St. Thomas University. “Cynically, one could see it as window dressing.”

The coalition is calling for rent control tied to the unit, not the tenant. In its current form, the legislation means that “on tenant turnover, landlords can set the rent at whatever they want,” Hayes said.

He’s concerned that the bill may in fact stimulate more “renovictions” — evictions carried out under the guise of necessary renovations — and other measures meant to dislodge current tenants in order to raise the rent.

“If the landlord finds that the rents are below what they should be getting, they can actually be incentivized to find ways to get rid of existing tenants,” he said.

Nichola Taylor, chair of NB ACORN, called the new legislation a victory for grassroots activists, saying that it shows the new government wants to work with tenants.

“Overall, the rent cap means that tenants will not face rent increases they cannot afford, or face homelessness because landlords want to increase the rent,” the group said in a statement. “That is something tenants across this province should celebrate.”

She said the province should make protections for renters more robust, including stronger rules against renovictions and other practices designed to push renters out of their homes.

For example, she noted that landlords are entitled to evict tenants to make rental units available for themselves or their family.

That might be reasonable in secondary units or the basement suite of someone’s home, but the provision is easily abused in other circumstances, NB ACORN says.

The group wants to see those “landlord-use evictions” banned in purpose-built rental buildings of a given size, and to place the onus on landlords to show “sustained occupancy of the unit by a family member over time.”

NB ACORN also want to see the creation of a compliance and enforcement unit to ensure that landlords comply with the Residential Tenancies Act, modelled on a system that’s already in place in British Columbia.

The group is planning to hold demonstrations in Fredericton and Moncton on Friday, Nov. 22, National Housing Day, calling on the provincial government to “do rent control right.” The events are taking place at noon, across from 401 York Street in Fredericton and at the corner of Joyce and Beechwood Ave. in Moncton.

David Gordon Koch is a journalist with the NB Media Co-op. This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, administered by the Canadian Association of Community Television Stations and Users (CACTUS).