As the Liberals and Greens campaign on policy changes to address New Brunswick’s housing crunch, the Progressive Conservatives say the existing approach is sufficient.
Jill Green, the PC candidate in Fredericton North and the social development minister in the most recent government led by Blaine Higgs, confirmed last week that her party doesn’t plan to introduce any new housing measures if re-elected on Oct. 21.
“It’s maintaining what we have currently in place,” Green said at a campaign stop in Fredericton.
“When we’re back working again in November, we’ll look if we need some changes to the Residential Tenancies Act. But there is no commitment now to make any change. It is working, it is balancing that relationship between landlords and tenants.”
But Julia Woodhall-Melnik, director of the Home Research Lab at the University of New Brunswick in Saint John, says maintaining the status quo won’t be enough.
Progressive Conservative candidate Jill Green believes the province’s current approach to affordable housing is working. (Pool Camera)
“We’ve seen housing affordability get worse in the province, we’ve had the largest rent increases east of Alberta this past year,” she said. “Things are not getting better, they’re only getting worse for tenants, affordability is getting worse for homeowners.”
In the first week of the campaign, the Liberals and Greens each proposed a rent cap, 2.5 per cent and three per cent, respectively, as a way to control skyrocketing rents.
Green says the province already has mechanisms to control rent. For example, tenants can apply for a phased-in increase if the amount meets a certain threshold.
Economist Richard Saillant believes the province needs some form of rent cap to prevent exorbitant increases. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)
However, Woodhall-Melnik and economist Richard Saillant agree that the province needs to add some form of rent cap to prevent exorbitant increases.
“As an economist, you’re not supposed to like price controls and I don’t like price controls,” Saillant said.
“But I view it as a last-resort instrument to help those who are really facing dramatic escalations in rents, which are going to keep happening in the years ahead because supply is simply not keeping up with demand.”
Saillant said a rent cap would have “a marginal impact” in deterring new developments, noting available labour as a bigger constraint to new construction.
Two years ago, the PC majority pledged $102 million over four years for social housing, and would continue with that plan if elected – but Woodhall-Melnik says that sum isn’t enough.
She would like to see higher spending, in particular on partnerships with non-profit builders.
On Friday, Green said the Tories have 233 subsidized units under construction or completed, with 24 in Fredericton and 16 in Moncton.
The Progressive Conservative government says more than 200 subsidized units were built during its majority term. (Robert Short/CBC)
Woodhall-Melnik said she is generally underwhelmed by the PC, Liberal and Green plans and she’d like to see the parties get more ambitious.
Failing to improve the situation, she added, will have big consequences in the coming years.
That’s because the election comes at a time where cities are struggling to control the presence of homeless encampments.
Fredericton struck a downtown security team tasked in part with reporting encampments to police. Saint John put forward a plan this year to have designated encampment areas in the city.
“There’s massive public outcry and outrage over encampments popping up in our urban centres,” Woodhall-Melnik said. “Those are the most obvious and visual signs of a crisis that we are already seeing now, and we can expect those to get worse.”
A person died in a fire at this homeless encampment in Saint John. (Lars Schwarz/CBC)
The consequences of a housing crunch, she said, can also be less obvious.
“When families have concerns around meeting their basic needs … we start to see breakdowns in marriages, and breakdowns in partnerships, relationships, so you would expect an uptick in domestic violence,” she said.
If people struggle to meet basic needs, Woodhall-Melnik said that can also lead to more crime.
“These are people’s lives. And you’re running to represent them, you have responsibilities to them,” she said.