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Rent control: Isn't that jurisdictionally provincial? Why turn it into a federal ballot question?
Apr 9, 2025
It strikes me that these are issues that perhaps belong more in a provincial or a municipal election campaign just jurisdictionally. Why are you trying to take what are ultimately kind of like provincial accountability issues and turn them into a federal ballot question?
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next question janice McGregor CBC
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appreciating the concerns that have been
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expressed so articulately in the in this
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cafe today um but it strikes me that
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these are issues that um perhaps belong
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more in a provincial or a municipal
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election campaign just
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jurisdictionally why are you trying to
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take what are ultimately kind of like
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provincial accountability issues and
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turn them into a federal ballot question
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because the matter of of the crisis
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we're in is a national crisis like
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wherever you go in this country people
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can't afford homes and it's getting
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worse and worse it's not getting better
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rents are going up it seems impossible
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to buy a home we heard from some young
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people who thought you know maybe I'd
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have I've saved up a bit maybe I'll be
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able to buy a home and like it's not in
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the books for me i don't see it ever
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being in the books for me i I want to
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change that and I really believe this
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that a leader is not someone who looks
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for excuses i could look for excuses all
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day and say "Oh it's not my jurisdiction
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it's not something I can do something
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about i could look for an excuse all day
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long i think a leader is not someone who
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looks for excuses it's someone who looks
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for solutions and yeah there's lots of
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solutions we can absolutely find ways to
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protect people at the federal level and
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one example that I gave and I mean it is
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that if we're investing and no one
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doubts the federal government can invest
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in housing we've done that before
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investing in housing is important well
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why would we invest in building homes
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that are affordable if then in a couple
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years those homes are no longer
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affordable that would be a bad
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investment i think Canadians would say
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that would be a bad investment so we're
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going to say we're going to make those
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investments yes but let's require that
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if we build a home that's affordable it
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stays affordable and the only way that
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happens is by putting in place better
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protections for renters that means
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ending fixedterm leases that means rent
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control so if a jurisdiction if a
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province or a municipality doesn't have
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those laws in place then no we're not
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going to spend money there but if they
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want to have federal funding to build
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homes that we all know every community
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needs then put in place laws that
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protect the people that are renting
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those homes
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and just a second question about the
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announcement of the day on rent control
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uh your background just says that you
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you will be
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targeting homes that are built on
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federally regulated land but most people
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in this room who are renters obviously
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don't live on federally regulated land
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and of course they live on you know land
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that's controlled by the provinces and
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rent control typically in most places is
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controlled by the provinces so maybe
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help me
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understand how you can make a promise
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that the NDP is going to bring in rent
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control when it's more or less out of
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your control
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uh there's just there's a couple of
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things going on we've had a number of
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announcements on housing and so one of
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our announcements on housing was that we
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would use federal land which is in every
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province every municipality there's
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federal land that we would keep that
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land owned by the public and that we
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would build 100% affordable homes on
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that land in contrast to the other
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parties who both talk about selling off
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that land and selling it to the highest
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bidder to build mostly unaffordable
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homes i think that's a bad plan our plan
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is to keep that land public own it by
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the people and to build affordable homes
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on that land that's separate from
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today's announcement which is about
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whenever we make investments in
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communities there's many different funds
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that we have the housing accelerator
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fund uh other affordability housing
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investments that we make that anytime
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there's an investment made in a province
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or a municipality we are going to
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require that it be tied to laws being in
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place that protect the renters so uh if
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investments are going to be made in
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Halifax for example the requirement will
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be if you want federal money to build a
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home you have to pass laws municipally
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and federally that actually protect
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renters we want to see laws that put in
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place real rent control laws that end
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fixedterm leases laws that end
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renovation and dem eviction other
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municipalities have passed laws that ban
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rent evictions we want to see those laws
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passed in a municipality if they want
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federal funds other provinces have rent
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control in place well we want to see
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true rent control with fixedterm leases
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removed uh if you want federal funds so
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it's a condition of funding when we
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spend money we absolutely can have
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conditions in place so we're saying
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we're going to invest in homes but
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there's got to be laws in place to
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ensure that our investments are good
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investments if we build and invest in a
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community whether it's federal land or
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not if we just invest in a community we
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want to make sure that those investments
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continue to benefit people and that to
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do that we need laws that protect
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renters thank you and I wonder if we
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could hear Miss Roberts on just how
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you've seen the housing situation change
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in Halifax in the last few years yeah
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for sure absolutely
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thank you um I was uh the MLA and uh the
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NDP provincial housing critic the first
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time that um someone slept in a tent uh
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visibly in my constituency and at that
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time I had I had um folks calling my
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office my MLA office and saying you have
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to you have to do something you have to
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intervene on this person's behalf and
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they knew that person's name so that uh
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so that they would be well sheltered and
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taken care of and and so it's been
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really quite dramatic over the past 8
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years how um how prevalent prevalent
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visible um persistent homelessness has
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has been has become and and and really
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how how frustrating it is again as a
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former MLA as a former housing critic
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for the Nova Scotia NDP caucus there's
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no satisfaction in saying "We told you
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so." But literally in in Province House
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in Nova Scotia I told them so like I I
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asked questions to the premier as we
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were seeing older uh deeply you know
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relatively affordable buildings being
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bought up and the entire buildings being
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uh being renovicted and and repositioned
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at much higher rents so yeah I I've I've
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I'm I'm super motivated to win this seat
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in Halifax because there is so much work
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that we need to do there are solutions
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that we can there are situ there are
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solutions from around the world that we
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can learn from and adopt and and people
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really need someone fighting for them to
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have the security of home so that they
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can commit to their communities and
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commit to their lives
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thank you
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