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.

With winter here, and no federal government announcement to extend funding for housing and homeless initiatives, Sault MP Tony Martin, the NDP social policy and poverty critic, pressed the government in Question Period Tuesday for a real plan. Here is the exchange.

Mr. Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie, NDP)
Mr. Speaker, since 1998 the Toronto Disaster Relief Committee declared homelessness a national disaster and 400 agencies from across the country agreed. The Liberal solution was to cut the funding for housing and the Conservatives have chosen huge corporate tax cuts instead of reinvesting in housing.

In Edmonton alone, 41 homeless people died last year. A homeless person died just this weekend in Montreal. This is a totally unnecessary disaster. When will the government establish a national housing strategy and when will it take these deaths seriously?

Hon. Monte Solberg (Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, CPC)
Mr. Speaker, the strategy of the government is to take steps that make a difference in the lives of people, which is why, when we came to office, one of the first things we did was to invest heavily in affordable housing. There is $1.4 billion in the housing trust today. The government is investing more in affordable housing than any government in history. We have also put in place the homelessness partnering strategy. We believe that a roof over a person’s head is the place to start to give them a hand, $270 million for that. We understand how important it is to make sure that people who are living in poverty get a–

Mr. Tony Martin (Sault Ste. Marie, NDP)
Let us be clear, Mr.Speaker, that money came from the “NDP budget”, when we forced the Liberals to cancel their corporate tax cuts. The St. Michael’s Hospital says homeless people die at a rate 10 times higher than people living in homes.

Meanwhile, all of the programs, federal homelessness, federal housing rehab and affordable housing are set to expire in a few months. The minister should visit the streets, talk to homeless people and get a dose of reality , because winter is here. Where is the plan?,

Hon. Monte Solberg (Minister of Human Resources and Social Development, CPC)
Mr. Speaker, I hate to break it to the member, but the NDP has never been in power so there was no budget from the NDP. I need to tell the member that the New Democrats have no monopoly on concern when it comes to looking after the homeless. Last week I was meeting in Vancouver with groups who work on the streets to help people get a roof over their heads, give them the helping hand that they need so they can ultimately get out of the situation they are in.

We are concerned about this. We are pouring resources in. It is more than just rhetoric with this party. We are getting the job done.

From today’s Toronto Star:

Canadians care deeply about poverty and its consequences in this country. That is evidenced by the fact that more than 4,200 Canadians and 330 organizations across the country have offered their views on the issue and the need for a nationwide strategy to solve it since mid-October, when the National Council of Welfare posted a questionnaire online.

The survey will run until tomorrow when the council, a federally mandated body that advises Ottawa on social policy, begins analyzing the results and drafting solutions.

The call for a national strategy comes in the wake of two council reports last summer that showed the poverty rate in Canada has not budged in a generation and the poorest among us are getting poorer.

Despite a raft of reports and countless initiatives, one in six Canadians is still poor, the council reports. That amounts to 5.3 million people who struggle to survive at low-wage jobs or on social assistance, disability benefits or limited pensions. What is needed to combat poverty is a comprehensive plan with clear goals and funding to meet them. Among approaches worthy of adoption are raising minimum wages and taking minimum wage earners off the income tax rolls, investing heavily in training, increasing welfare payments and beefing up drug and child-care support.

In Canada, both Quebec and Newfoundland have adopted anti-poverty strategies that are paying off.

The goal of a national anti-poverty program must be to create a national system that provides a decent level of income for all families in need.

Lend your voice to the call and fill in the welfare council’s questionnaire at http://www.ncwcnbes.net by tomorrow. Politicians must know that Canadians care about this important topic.

Click here or look above for the full image.

I’ve planned a blanket drive for my student association and one for the Calgary NDP Holiday Open House. Basically we have a box out that accepts donations of blankets, packaged socks, jackets, gloves, toques, etc… and then we donate everything we collect to a local homeless shelter.

We are doing it at the Alberta NDP open house tommorrow, and I will let you all know how well it goes. The one at my college, SAIT, will be taking place next week during exams. I will let you all know how that one goes as well.

If you are having a holiday party, or any sort of get together, I urge that you try this out. It’s quite simple, you leave out a box at the party/event and in the invitations you ask guests to bring items if they have them. It’s a little help for the homeless this holiday season. It’s no roof over their heads, and certainly not a solution, but it is something we can do to help while we urge the government to start building affordable housing.