Today a facebook group that I created calling on the Alberta Government to implement rent controls has reached 1000 members! This is a major milestone, as many of the members are just ordinary Albertans! Now that it is the new year, I hope to organize events from this group. These events will focus on pressuring government to have more protections for renters. More to come soon!

If you haven’t already joined the group, I encourage you to do so. If you have already, I encourage you to invite all your friends. Can we make to 10,000 members soon? Let’s see!

Click here to go to the group. 

A new report from the CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) shows that rental vacancies in Calgary are up a full percentage point, now at 1.5 percent from 0.5 percent last year, but the cost to rent in the city of Calgary is downright expensive!

In Calgary the average rent for a 2 bedroom apartment is $1089, making Calgary the most expensive metropolitan city to rent a home in, in Canada – beating longstanding champion Vancouver.

I am reiterating my call for the need of rent controls in Alberta. These rent controls would make it so that landlords can not raise their rent faster then the rate of inflation and limit these increases to once a year. With the average rent increase in Alberta metropolitan areas between October 2006 and 2007 being 17.2% and between October 2005 and 2006 being 13.3%, we are having a rental crisis.

Alberta is out of the norm with rental increases of 17.2% in the previous year. Other provinces are seeing smaller rental increases during this period of time. For example, British Columbia only had a 5.5% rent increase (Meaning we will be well ahead of Vancouver in terms of rent costs next year), Manitoba had a 3.9% increase, Ontario had a 1.6% increase, Quebec had a 2.5% increase, New Brunswick had a 2.3% increase… I think you get the point. Albertans are being ripped off.

Someone making minimum wage in Alberta can not or barely can afford the average 2 bedroom apartment. The minimum wage in Alberta sits at $7 an hour.

I’m going to do some calculations just to show you how difficult it will be for someone making minimum wage in Alberta to afford a place to live. But before I do I want to say that you may hear statistics that only a small portion of Albertans make minimum wage, that is true. But those statistics do not include people making just above minimum wage (For example $8/hour or even $7.10/hour). I was once one of those making $7.10/hour, in reality I was making minimum wage. So I will do these calculations at $8/hour with no tax deductions and no missing days of work.

So here it is: Somebody working 5 days a week, no sick days, at $8/hour with no tax deductions (which wouldn’t happen) will take home $16,640. The cost for their two bedroom apartment is $13,068 per year. This leaves them $3572 left, if they didn’t pay taxes, which of course they did. That leaves this person with only $297.67 before taxes per month left for all other expenses. Not even enough for suitable food and transportation. Now imagine being a single parent making that much, having an extra mouth to feed, extra body to clothe and having to pay $300 or more each year in school fees – There goes a month’s budget. Alberta has a huge poverty problem that needs to be addressed today!

Saskatchewan looks to be headed in the same direction. With a 9.1% increase in rental rates between October 2006 and 2007 compared to an increase of only 3.6% between October 2005 and 2006. Saskatchewan can stop these unfair rental rates before they got out of hand like they are in Alberta, but with a new free market Premier, it seems very unlikely.

So to conclude, Alberta has such high rents that even a full time working person struggles to stay alive. Alberta also is the home of Calgary, the city with the largest homeless population. It’s a shame being the richest province in Canada and having so much poverty. Rent controls are needed in Alberta more than ever, and a full plan needs to be implemented to make poverty history in Alberta.

Update: I’ve made a Facebook group calling for Rent Controls in Alberta. Please join it, and we can have organized action for rent controls. Click here to go to the Facebook group.

The cost of tuition will be tied to the rate of inflation starting in the fall of 2007, according to Alberta’s advanced education minister. This is a long-awaited, but welcomed announcement.

However I do have one question regarding this announcement, which I have written to the minister about. In the article above, it states that the minister says this move could save the average university student $3800. Now, I’m in a post secondary institution, which means I know how to do some math. I do not see how he calculates a savings of $3800. My tuition is $4200 which is for a college, but I should still see around the same savings on this plan as a University student. The average cost of tuition at the University of Calgary is $5200. I would welcome a decrease of my tuition to around $400, and I’m sure a UofC student would love tuition at the rate of $1400. However I do not see how these savings can be achieved under this plan, and unless I’m missing something, I believe the minister is trying to deceive the educated. Tieing the cost of tuition to the rate of inflation will only make the increasements in the rate of tuition smaller, and tuition certainly doesn’t rise $3800 in one year. I should give the minister a chance to respond to my letter before I criticize him anymore.

Can anyone reading my blog help me find the mystery savings of $3800?

Edited To Add: Supposedly QR770 misreported. The $3800 is savings over a total of 4 years. Still a high estimate at $900/year. And still this plan is not enough to make tuition affordable, it is already unaffordable. This won’t make it easier for anyone. - http://www.expressnews.ualberta.ca/article.cfm?id=7992

An election in Alberta is looming. A new leader is about to be picked for the Progressive Conservatives. I believe the new leader will want to have an election as soon as possible so that he/she can have a fresh mandate. Even if the leader does not call an early election, an election is still around the corner.

Alberta’s population is changing though. With leaky schools, the Tories lack of regard for oil revenues and no plan for the oil sands, the Progressive Conservatives are going to have to work really hard for their usual vote they are accustomed to in Alberta. I really do believe that we are coming to a shift of power in Alberta, and the party who truly stands up for Albertans and proves to Albertans that they actually care, will be the winners.

Not only have the issues caused the PC party to lose support, but also new comers to the province are creating greater support to the other parties. People from British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario and everywhere else know that things can be done a lot better. Why do Albertans, living the richest province in Canada, pay health premiums, high auto insurance and high oil/gas prices? Why do several schools in Calgary have leaky roofs? Why is our homeless rate climbing higher and higher? Where are the affordable homes? These are appropriate questions that the Tories are going to need to address and solve in the next election if they want to be elected again. I am very doubtful the questions will even be addressed, let alone dealt with and solved.

It’s time for a change Alberta. Make your vote count in the next election, vote for change.

Well it looks like Canada’s Environment Minister, may actually be forced to do something about the environment!

EDMONTON, AB – A coalition of environmental groups today served Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose with a petition giving her 60 days to step in to protect two endangered plants in Alberta or face a lawsuit. Alberta Wilderness Association, Federation of Alberta Naturalists, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Sierra Club of Canada and Nature Canada, represented by Sierra Legal Defence Fund, are threatening the suit to test the federal government’s intention to protect Canada’s endangered wildlife.
“When Canadians were assured by the federal government that the Species at Risk Act would protect all of Canada’s endangered plants and animals, were they being told the truth?” asked Rachel Plotkin of Sierra Club. “This case will reveal the answer.”
The Species at Risk Act, while a national law, does not apply in the provinces unless the federal cabinet orders it to, which it will do only on the recommendation of the Federal Environment Minister if she considers provincial laws inadequate. But Minister Ambrose has failed to make such a recommendation for Alberta despite the fact that the province has no endangered species legislation and does not protect national endangered species.
To test the government’s commitment to protecting all of Canada’s endangered species, the groups are asking Rona Ambrose to recommend protection for the tiny cryptanthe and small-flowered sand verbena. These plants, though at immediate risk of extinction, have small populations and small footprints making them an easy choice for protection.

I say kudos to the Sierra Club of Canada and all other groups involved.

The federal cabinet must order this law to be applied in Alberta, and Rona Ambrose must recommend the cabinet to do this. How can she defend that Alberta’s laws as adequate? There are none! Ok, I’ll let her speak first; I’m jumping ahead of the gun with my own preconceived notions of what she will say. It will be interesting to see how she really responds. If she doesn’t respond positively, I would really love to hear her excuse.