Housing Minister David Hickey says government trying to balance tenants’ rights with concerns of developers and landlords

New Brunswick’s Housing Minister says one of his main jobs in the coming year will be to make sure tenants know their rights under the 3 per cent annual rent cap legislation that takes effect on February 1.

“Landlords are already sending out notices of rents higher than 3 per cent,” David Hickey told an audience of about 100 at Tantramar Town Hall on Saturday during a public session of the Mayor’s Roundtable on Housing.

“Tenants don’t know their rights.”

Hickey returned to that theme later during an interview with reporters.

“We’re going to put the necessary protections in place for tenants in this province to make sure that they know their rights, that they have strong rights to be able to stand up for themselves, while making sure that we are creating a competitive development landscape both for developers and operators of market units,” he said.

“I think the big theme, that I really want to push on this stuff is, it’s about balance,” he added.

Hickey explained that’s partly why the new Liberal government did not heed the advice of tenant advocacy groups that called for the rent cap to be tied to the rental unit and not the tenant so that  landlords couldn’t raise rents by more than the cap when tenants move out.

During legislative committee meetings last month, representatives of the NB Coalition for Tenants Rights and New Brunswick Acorn said tying the rent cap to tenants gives landlords an incentive to get them out in order to raise rents by more than 3 per cent.

The groups said landlords do this by offering fixed-term leases that do not automatically renew, by evicting tenants for unnecessary renovations or by claiming they need the unit for themselves or a relative.

But Hickey says the government doesn’t have the information it would need to tie the rent cap to each unit.

“There’s about 40,000 renters in the province of New Brunswick. We don’t know what their rents are. We have no idea,” he says.

Rent registry

Hickey added that his department is in the process of setting up a rent registry that should be in full operation by the spring of 2026.

In the meantime, he says he’s trying to encourage developers to increase the supply of rental housing so that the present vacancy rate of about 1% increases to a 3% rate to promote competition that would result in lower, more affordable rents.

Hickey points, for example, to the government’s removal of the 10% provincial sales tax on the construction of multi-unit buildings as one way of increasing supply.

He suggests that tying rents to units could discourage developers from building new ones, so it’s important to gather more registry data to determine vacancy rates and to conduct an annual review of the rent cap to determine how it’s affecting the supply of rental housing.

Hickey also says the Higgs government approved additional staff jobs at the Tenant and Landlord Relations Office (TLRO), the new name for the old Residential Tenancies Tribunal that was set up to resolve disputes between landlords and tenants.

“We’ve got 30 approved positions…that are still vacant,” he adds, but suggests the new government needs to set up an internal human resources department to help with hiring.

“One of the biggest things that landlords ask for us in response to the TLRO is timeliness. It’s timeliness and response. Having more staff capacity is a really important part of that,” he says.

MLA Mitton disagrees

Tantramar MLA Megan Mitton, who also attended Saturday’s public session on housing, says she disagrees that a rent registry is needed before the 3% rent cap can be tied to housing units and not individual tenants.

“There does need to be a registry and I’m extremely frustrated that there isn’t one yet,” she told Warktimes. “I’ve been calling for a registry for years.”

Mitton said she has spoken to housing experts who say they would adopt a strong rent cap, then build the rent registry.

“My problem is that without tying the cap to each unit, it creates loopholes that leave tenants without the protections they need,” she says.

“I did ask the minister in the legislature would he commit to tying the rent to the unit. He wouldn’t give an affirmative answer in the legislature, but I’m going to keep asking and keep pushing for it,” she adds.

Bruce Wark worked in broadcasting and journalism education for more than 35 years. He was at CBC Radio for nearly 20 years as senior editor of network programs such as The World at Six and World Report. He currently writes for The New Wark Times, where a version of this story first appeared on January 20, 2025.