As Alberta’s affordable housing crisis continues to explode, a new poll has been released by the Calgary Herald detailing Albertans attitudes towards rent control:
Big city support for rent control
A new poll finds that a majority of Albertans in the province’s two largest cities overwhelmingly support rent controls, which have been rejected by the Tory government.
An Ipsos-Reid survey provided exclusively to the Herald Monday found 78 per cent of home owners and 92 per cent of renters in Calgary and Edmonton support having government limits to rent increases.
“Some landlords are gouging and that’s not fair,” said Calgarian Daniel Johnson, 60, who recently received notice that rent for his one bedroom apartment is jumping to $1,075 from $575. He said although he understands that there needs to be moderate housing price increases, he strongly supports rent controls.
Renters are citizens just like everybody else and they are afforded no rights under the current system,” said Johnson, who is working to establish a tenants group in Calgary. “If there was balance throughout it would be better.
Don Braid hits it right on the mark in his article in today’s Herald:
The Tories have 19 MLAs from Calgary, one-third of their entire majority.
Theoretically, the government should be well-informed about what’s going on in the city, and how people are feeling.
Too often, though, MLAs who pass on the gritty news from the inner city are ignored. The ones who win a happy reception are more ideological Tories who say what the inner circle wants to hear.
Renters and homeowners are not feeling so ideological. They want a solution to the rent crisis.
