Service NB Minister Jill Green effectively ruled out an extension of the current temporary rent cap in New Brunswick, which had limited rent increases in 2022 to 3.8 per cent, on Thursday at the provincial legislature.<\/p>\n
Instead, Green introduced a bill to add a phase-in mechanism that could be used by the Residential Tenancies Tribunal on a case by case basis. If landlords raise rents by more than the Consumer Price Index in a given year, and if a tenant formally complains to the tribunal about that increase, the tribunal would then have the power to require a \u2018phase-in\u2019 of the increase over two to three years.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rent cap is off the table right now,\u201d Green told reporters after the law was introduced Thursday. But she also left open the possibility that the government could react later if needed. \u201cLast year, if we needed to make a change quickly, we did it and we will do it again,\u201d she said. \u201cWe will not hesitate to do more should we find there\u2019s a bigger problem than we understand.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the meantime, the new system will \u201crequires everybody to be working together,\u201d said Green. \u201cWe need the landlords to step up. And we need the tenants to talk to us and tell us when they have a rent increase that they think is inappropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
One housing researcher says requiring tenants to complain about rental increases is not reasonable, given the power dynamics between tenants and landlords. Julia Woodhall-Melnik is the Canada Research Chair in Resilient Communities, and an Associate Professor of Social Science at UNB in Saint John.<\/p>\n
\u201cTenants are in a vulnerable position,\u201d says Woodhall-Melnik. \u201cThe landlord holds the power, right? And asking the tenant to complain to a tribunal because they feel like they\u2019ve received an unfair rent increase is putting the onus on the victim to complain.\u201d<\/p>\n
Woodhall-Melnik says the government could have asked landlords to apply to the Residential Tenancies Tribunal for rent increases, and have them pre-approved. \u201dIt should never be left up to the tenants to complain,\u201d says Woodhall-Melnik.<\/p>\n
Green told reporters on Thursday that Service NB would make sure tenants had the help they needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cGive my office a call,\u201d said Green, \u201cand we\u2019ll help them. We have controls in place to help. We can do it by phone, you can do it in person. And there are many different avenues to help them.\u201d Green also promised a campaign by Service NB to \u201cmake sure that people have an ability to access help.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green said the main reason the government decided against a rent cap was the effect some predict it may have on housing supply, saying they \u201chave been shown not to have the desired effect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at any article by an economist and they say rent caps don\u2019t work,\u201d said Green.<\/p>\n
But that opinion is contested by Woodhall-Melnik, who says there are different types of caps and not all of them have been found to have the same effects.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s three different generations of rent caps,\u201d says Woodhall-Melnik. The first generation were complete rent freezes, and those were more likely to hinder supply, says Woodhall-Melnik, adding that sometimes they might still be necessary, depending on market conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe type of rent control we have now is a third generation rent cap, and those ones actually haven\u2019t been shown to have impact on supply,\u201d says Woodhall-Melnik, \u201cbecause landlords are still making profit through a whole bunch of different mechanisms.\u201d<\/p>\n
Green called the government\u2019s plan a \u201cbalanced approach\u201d which she says will \u201cencourage development and at the same time protect tenants.\u201d But according to stats from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, New Brunswick had more new housing units at various stages of construction in early 2022 than it has had since 2002.<\/p>\n
According to Woodhall-Melnik, the reluctance of the government to extend the cap shows they are inclined to \u201cprotect the wealthy few at the expense of the many.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acorn NB and the New Brunswick Coalition for Tenants Rights have been calling for an extension of the rent cap, and are planning a rally this Saturday in Fredericton to call for the protection to be made permanent. The rally starts at 1pm Saturday on the front lawn of the legislature.<\/p>\n
Listen to the CHMA story below:<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Service NB Minister Jill Green effectively ruled out an extension of the current temporary rent cap in New Brunswick, which had limited rent increases in 2022 to 3.8 per cent, on Thursday at the provincial legislature. Instead, Green introduced a bill to add a phase-in mechanism that could be used by the Residential Tenancies Tribunal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":106,"featured_media":128884,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[217,225],"tags":[571,13348,21122,824,4117,21134],"radio":[227],"origine":[274,275,277],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128877"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/106"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=128877"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128877\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":128899,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/128877\/revisions\/128899"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/128884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=128877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=128877"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=128877"},{"taxonomy":"radio","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/radio?post=128877"},{"taxonomy":"origine","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada-info.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/origine?post=128877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}