This Saturday at 3pm people will gather at Moncton City Hall in a peaceful protest for rent control in the province.
Haylee Cormier is the organizer of the event, and for her, the motivation to do something was personal. Cormier has a story similar to many that have been reported about recently: a sudden, steep rent increase forced her to move. And with rapidly increasing rents everywhere in the city, she hasn’t been able to find a place she can afford.
Here’s Haylee Cormier in conversation with Erica Butler on Tantramar Report:
“Normally, I’m not the type of person to step up and do something like this, says Cormier. “But with everything, it’s more personal for me.”
Cormier had been living in an apartment with her 10-year-old son for $800 a month, everything included. But when her building was sold, the new management pinned a note to her door informing her that her rent would go up to $900 a month, and utilities would no longer be included. Cormier estimates her living costs would go up to $1200 a month, a 50% hike.
Cormier says a rent cap isn’t the only solution needed, but it’s a start.
“I think there’s a lot of things that need to change and a lot of things that need to be done,” says Cormier. “I don’t think the rent cap is the answer, I think it’s just one step into the right direction.”
Cormier says when she looks at rental ads these days she’s in shock at the prices.
“There’s no limit on percentage. There’s no limit on price. There’s no limit on anything,” says Cormier. “So for me, it’s like, when does it get serious enough to say, Hey, we need to stop? When it’s $5,000 for a one bedroom? They can literally keep putting it up as much as they want.”
Cormier says she decided to call for a protest after seeing a number of people complaining about the same issue. “I thought why not step up and do something? I’m being affected directly, so maybe I should finally, you know, step out of my comfort zone and do something that I wouldn’t normally do.”
“I’m like right in the middle of it, personally,” says Cormier. “So that’s my motivation for doing the protest.”
Cormier’s event on Facebook invites people to gather Saturday, December 12 at 3pm at city hall, 655 Main Street, Moncton.
Cormier is asking people to wear masks and keep their distance from each other during the protest. “I want people to stay safe,” says Cormier. “And I don’t want people getting fined.”
Cormier had originally planned the protest for back on November 28, but the orange phase forced her to postpone. With yellow phase restrictions in place this week, the protest and march is a go for Saturday.
HIGGS SAYS LANDLORDS TELL HIM RENT HIKES ARE NOT A PROBLEM
It’s worth noting that Cormier’s call for a rent cap is not out of the blue. Recently, over in Nova Scotia, the government announced a temporary rent cap of 2%, as well as a ban on renovictions, the practice of using renovations as grounds to evict tenants.
At a news conference on December 3, a reporter asked Premier Blaine Higgs what his thoughts were on a possible eviction ban or rent control.
Higgs said that as far as numbers go, he didn’t see a problem with evictions in 2020, and said he’s been speaking with landlords who say rents are not going up.
“We’ll monitor that to see what is real,” said Higgs. “We’ve been talking with landlords to understand what has been the rent situation, what has been the evictions. And so we’re analyzing right now the stats and we’ll decide how to react based on what the situation really is.”
“We know that there are new buildings going up. We know that there are renovations going on in apartments. But we’re being told by the landlords that the rental rate increases are low,” said Higgs. “We will pursue to understand that before we react on a policy that may have been necessary somewhere else, and may or may not be necessary here.”