NB Update: Could P.E.I.’s tougher rent control system serve as a model for New Brunswick? [video]

In this edition of the NB Update, we look at stronger rent control measures that advocates say are needed in New Brunswick.

The issue came up during a recent documentary film screening and panel discussion on solutions to the affordable housing crisis. The event brought together dozens of people at the Moncton Public Library.

It was the New Brunswick launch of a documentary titled “Thinking Beyond the Market: A Film about Genuinely Affordable Housing,” by Brian Doucet, a planning professor the University of Waterloo.

The film looks at examples from across the country, including Prince Edward Island, where a two per cent rent cap is tied to the unit, not to the renter.

That means that, unlike in New Brunswick landlords on the Island aren’t allowed to jack up the rent when the unit is vacant, a policy sometimes called “vacancy control.” In his film, Doucet calls it the “best system in the country.”

There’s at least one problem with the P.E.I. system: without some kind of public registry in place, tenants don’t know what the legal rent should be unless they ask a previous tenant, which is often impossible.

In 2021, P.E.I. resident Darcie Lanthier launched a crowdsourced rent registry (myoldapartment.org) so that people could check it out for themselves. Lanthier, who established that system as a volunteer in her spare time, commented on the importance of having a rental registry in an interview with Doucet, the filmmaker.

“That’s where the evidence is,” Lanthier said. “We had fantastic rules, but no enforcement.”

Lanthier was part of a panel discussion at the Moncton event, alongside three New Brunswick-based housing researchers: Matthew Hayes, Julia Woodhall-Melnik and Tobin LeBlanc Haley. (LeBlanc Haley is a member of the NB Media Co-op board of directors.)

During that discussion, Woodhall-Melnik recalled how the three of them had pushed for vacancy control in New Brunswick during legislative hearings in December 2024. “We were told it can’t be done because there’s no way to track it,” said Woodhall-Melnik.

She described Lanthier’s efforts as a source of inspiration. “Yes, we need policy change and we need our policymakers onside with us, but this just shows you that someone who cares and grassroots movements can really make a difference and move the needle,” she said.

“So my big question for the province of New Brunswick would be, if Darcie can create a rent registry off the side of her desk while having a full-time job and no funding, why can’t you?”

The NB Media Co-op requested an interview with Housing Minister David Hickey to ask if the province is considering the P.E.I. model of rent control.

A spokesperson provided a statement that didn’t respond directly to that question but noted that a review of the Residential Tenancies Act (RTA) is currently underway.

That process involves “meeting with stakeholders, community partners, landlords and tenants across the province,” according to the statement, which was attributed to Hickey.

“Our goal is to gather their thoughts and concerns and to use that feedback to modernize the legislation, which hasn’t been done in many years.”

Hickey added, in part, that “we need more data, and part of the work we will be doing to update the RTA will be to add additional information collection and monitoring to the process.”

The screening and panel discussion in Moncton was organized by the Riverview riding association of the New Brunswick Green Party.

The NB Update is a collaboration between the NB Media Co-op and CHCO TV.

This reporting has been made possible in part by the Government of Canada, via the Local Journalism Initiative.