The Deputy Premier of Alberta, Ron Stevens, has responded to the report from the CMHC of rising rent prices in Alberta with, “We’re very clear on that. We are not going to bring in rent control.”

Let’s show him that we Albertans are very clear on the fact that we want rent controls.

Write to Deputy Premier, Ron Stevens: (I will try and put together a template letter soon.)

calgary.glenmore@assembly.ab.ca

Then print out that email and mail it to him here:

#403 Legislature Building
10800 - 97 Avenue
Edmonton, AB
Canada T5K 2B6

Also while you are at it, give him a phone call and voice your opinions on the rental situation in Alberta and why rent controls are needed:

Legislative office: (780) 427-2339
Constituency office: (403) 216-5421

Also join the Facebook group calling for rent controls in Alberta.

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.

From here:

NDP MLA Ray Martin, speaking up for Dania Kochan, a downtown renter who was given just one month’s notice to move out of her apartment in advance of a condominium conversion, demanded the PCs start fining landlords who violate the Residential Tenancies Act.

“Until landlords learn that there’s a penalty for breaking the law, they’ll keep breaking it,” Martin said. “Anyone else who gets caught breaking the law has to pay, so why should landlords get any special treatment?”

The landlord served Kochan with the eviction notice on June 26, 2007, ordering her to vacate the unit by the end of July. By law, she is entitled to a minimum of 90 days notice. However, a condominium plan was filed for the property at 10240-122 Street on May 8, 2007, so Kochan is entitled to 365 days notice.

When Kochan called her landlord, he explained he wasn’t making enough money by renting the suites. When NDP staff contacted Government Services on the renter’s behalf, they were advised the tenant should obtain “legal counsel.”

“Tenants shouldn’t have to get a lawyer when a landlord is unlawfully evicting them. Government has a duty to protect these people.” said Martin.

“The Tories have their priorities backwards: they’re standing up for the gougers while families get hosed.”