Not enough complaints to consider rent control: minister
Posted May 4, 2012 05:52:00 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The provincial government isn’t interested in reconsidering rent control – at least, not until a few more taxpayers demand it.
Landlords who intend to raise rent in September – the start of the university fall semester – had to tell their tenants this week what the increase would be, and some of the hikes were significant – 10 per cent or more.
Coun. Dawn Sloane says she’s been getting calls from concerned tenants all week, and not just in her district.
“I’m also getting emails from people in Spryfield, Dartmouth and all over the place,” she said. “So it’s not particular to any one place.”
But John MacDonnell, the cabinet minister responsible for the Residential Tenancies Act, says re-examining rent control is not on his to-do list.
“If I was getting inundated with complaints, I might consider this as a much bigger issue,” he said. “In my department, we’ve only received two or three complaints in six months.”
Premier Darrell Dexter, a former chair of the residential tenancies board in Dartmouth, also says the government can help tenants out in more productive ways.
“I have no interest in it, if that’s what you’re asking me,” he said. “The best thing, in terms of the housing market, is to do exactly what we’re doing, which is focus on the availability of affordable housing and the government’s ability to try to influence that, which is where our focus has been.”
Only four provinces in Canada currently have legislation to limit the size of rent increases.
