Alberta NDP MLA Janis Irwin tabled a private members bill in the legislature on Dec. 5, with the aim of providing immediate relief for the province’s renters who say rent increases have outstripped their ability to find housing.

Irwin’s Bill 205, The Alberta Housing Protection Act, would, if passed, amend the Residential Tenancies Act and the Mobile Home Site Tenancies Act to set a two-year, two-per cent cap on rent increases, followed by a further two-years of between two and five per cent rent increases tied to Alberta’s Consumer Price Index.

Provisions in the act would also allow for landlords to go before the province’s Residential Tenancy Dispute Resolution Service for exemptions to the cap, if increases to rent are required to undertake improvements or upgrades to units.

“Every Albertan deserves to have an affordable place to call home, but the cost of rent is skyrocketing, particularly here in Calgary. Everyday Albertans are facing rental increases of 20, 30, and even 50 per cent,” said Irwin.

“This is forcing families to stretch their household budgets to the breaking point. There are of reports of people skipping meals to make ends meet, students dropping out of school or even living in their cars, and more than 115,000 Calgarians are at high risk of falling into homelessness.”

The Bill would also apply the cap to vacant units, something Irwin said would help to address the issue of so-called renovations, where tenants are evicted from units so that renovations can occur, with increased rental prices applied afterwards.

She said that the caps would also provide downstream benefits for other sectors of the economy.

“Any of the folks here could can speak to their experiences of trying to trying to cover rent and having to choose between having a night out—which is a luxury for a lot of a lot of renters right now—trying to cover the costs of of auto insurance, of transit, the rising price of groceries,” Irwin said.

Data shows double digit percentage increases in rent, year-over-year

According to the November rental report provided by rentals.ca, based on primary and secondary rental listings on their network, the average rent in Calgary in November of this year was $2,093 per month—a 14.7 per cent increase year over year from November 2022.

The average rental prices for Calgary for studio apartments was $1,527, one bedroom apartments were $1,833, two bedroom apartments were $2,295, and three bedroom apartments were $2,636 per month.

A review of the Rentals.ca listings for Calgary, on Dec. 5 by LWC found that there were just 37 listings available for rentals below $1,500 per month, and just eight at below $1,000.

Seasonally unadjusted Consumer Price Index data for Calgary, provided by Statistics Canada, showed an 11.7 per cent increase in overall rented accommodation from October of 2022 to October of 2023, and an 18.2 per cent increase in CPI from October of 2021 to October of 2023.

Calgarian Christina Crane, speaking in support of Irwin’s private members bill, said that she, along with many people she knows, have been stressed out by the rental situation in the city.

“Dozens of people within my circle are stressed about the current rental situation—most of them being one increase away from losing housing or having to make drastic decisions on relocating,” she said.

“I honestly feel like the rental issue that we have right now is all consuming. It’s all I think about, because I have to figure out where this money that was already budgeted for other things is going to fit into my housing.”

She said that hearing stories from people that she knows about $300, $400, and even $900 a month increases isn’t rare.

“The only option that we have is to pay it, because there’s nothing else that’s cheaper, and if it is cheaper, it’s gone.”

Addressing rent control concerns

Rent control as a government policy has largely been opposed by economists, as rent controls are seen to increase negative externalities in the marketplace, cause landlords to leave the marketplace, and cause a decline in the quality of rental units.

Irwin addressed these wide held concerns by saying that she had spoken to economists, and acknowledged that normally they would not be in favour of rent caps or controls.

“I’ve talked to spoke folks in the economic sector who acknowledge that historically they wouldn’t be in support, but again, for lack of a better term, we are in unprecedented times,” she said.

Irwin said that since the summer, when she was on the fence about using a cap or control solution for the rental market, that speaking to renters, home owners, and housing advocates has changed the way she views the issue.

“This was something that we truly think will have immediate relief for renters, for the thousands of renters that we’ve been hearing from across the province.”

Irwin emphasized that the solution was a temporary one to rent issues in the province, and that aspect was part of an overall goal to also provide a greater supply of affordable housing across Alberta.

“This will give renter stability over the next four years, as many cope with the chaos that housing affordability crisis has inflicted on our market,” she said.

She said that the bill was also in line with other jurisdictions across the country, including Ontario, the Yukon, and some of the Atlantic Provinces.

Nova Scotia capped rental increases to 2 per cent, and banned the use of renovictions by landlords during the pandemic.

In Ontario, the rent increase guideline sets the limit to what rent can be increased by during the year, unless the landlord gets approval for a higher increase from the Landlord and Tenant Approval Board. Currently that cap is set at 2.5 per cent, but does not apply to buildings built after 2018.

Greater disclosure by government for affordable housing in the province

Irwin’s bill, if passed, would also amend the Alberta Housing Act to set a minimum number of affordable and social housing unit targets for a fiscal year, and to make those targets publicly available and accessible on Alberta.ca.

Reporting on how the government met those targets would also be required annually, with a breakdown of housing types between single family residences, multi-unit residences, apartments, and other units not a part of those categories.

It would also require reporting on social housing types including seniors lodges, and seniors self-contained accommodations.

“It’s an important piece because we’ve seen the UCP government draw a lot of numbers, and there’s not a lot of clear data to support it,” Irwin said.

She said that the government has provided some details, but accused the current reporting methodology of obfuscating the actual number of affordable housing units build in the province.

“As an example, they’ll talk about having built 2,300 affordable housing units. But what they’ve done is they’ve also included rent supplements in that, and so what we’re asking for is a lot more transparency so that Albertans can see what’s what’s actually being built by this government.”