Friday at 1pm, people will gather in front of the Service New Brunswick office at Assumption Place in Moncton to call for rent control and tenant protection in the province.
Tyler Wolfe is one of the local organizers for the protest. Hear him talk about the action on Tantramar Report:
Wolfe is with the Moncton chapter of ACORN Canada, a membership organization made up of, “low to moderate income people who are fighting for change,” says Wolfe. ACORN has been active in Canada since 2004, and now has 24 chapters across nine cities, and about 140,000 members, he says.
“We’re trying to bring awareness to New Brunswick and help change things here,” says Wolfe.
Wolfe had experience with a rental increase happening just before moving into his current apartment, without any work or improvements taking place. “The landlord hadn’t actually even entered the property, from the other tenant leaving to me entering it,” says Wolfe. “And the rent had gone up by $125 a month.”
Significant rental increases are not only happening between tenants, but also during tenancies, as news stories throughout the fall of 2020 demonstrated. In December, CHMA spoke with Haylee Cormier, another renter who experienced a sharp increase in rent that forced her and her 10-year-old son to leave their apartment. Cormier’s experience moved her to organize a protest in December, and call for a rent cap.
“There’s no limit on percentage. There’s no limit on price. There’s no limit on anything,” Cormier told CHMA in December. “So for me, it’s like, when does it get serious enough to say, Hey, we need to stop?”
Wolfe says the action this Friday is calling for a ban on evictions, a cap of 2% on rent increases, and a review of the Residential Tenancies Act. Wolfe says the idea is, “just to essentially help give us as renters rights. And to to feel like we’re safe.”
“We’re trying to get their attention. That is the move this Friday. It’s like, ‘Look, hey, listen to us, we need to be heard,’” says Wolfe.
In his state of the province address on February 10, 2021, Premier Blaine Higgs announced the province would be taking three months to conduct a review of the rental situation in the province.
“We will be evaluating the market, vacancy rates, rental fees and trends, and the impact COVID-19 may be having on all of the above,” he said.
He also told reporters that based on the information he has received, “no, we don’t have a crisis.”
This concerns Wolfe. His message for the Premier is, “listen to the people in the province. There are a lot of people stepping up, speaking out, and so many more who are afraid to step up and speak out,” he says.
“If this is happening to you,” says Wolfe, “you might not be alone and there might be something that we could do. We can help each other… There’s power in numbers. And right now there’s so many people experiencing so many different levels of unjust treatment.”
After Higgs announced the 90-day review, Green leader David Coon called for a 90-day rent freeze to match, so as not to signal to landlords to give the required three months notice now, before changes to rent regulation could come in.
Wolfe says he is hoping that the government will act sooner than 90 days. “A lot can happen in that timeframe, in regards to people waiting for them to do something, and hopefully not be pushed out onto the streets or out of their homes.”
NB COALITION FOR TENANTS RIGHTS SPEAKS UP ON CHMA TALKS
ACORN Canada is not the only organization to take on the fight for tenant protections in New Brunswick. Tonight’s episode of CHMA Talks (6pm on chmafm.com or 106.9FM in Sackville) features Tobin Haley of the newly formed New Brunswick Tenants Rights Coalition. Haley talks about what’s known about the current state of renting in the province, and outlines demands by the coalition including a temporary 2% rent cap in the province.
“We’re not asking for anything radical here,” says Haley. “This isn’t 2% forever. This is 2% until New Brunswick has moved back into the green phase.”
Tune in to CHMA Talks to hear more from Tobin Haley of the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights.