Debates of March 10, 2009 (day 26)

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I want to revisit an issue I have raised here in the Assembly a number of times as well as I wish to acknowledge my colleague from Frame Lake who has raised the same issue. The issue is about affordable rent and protection measures for our northern residents here. Mr. Speaker, it doesn’t go any further than this. It is the lack of protection and those measures to protect our citizens from unbearable rent increases that they cannot control.

Mr. Speaker, this is truly breaking the northern family and it is certainly getting worse. Mr. Speaker, I am getting e-mails that talk about this to tell me line by line. They detail their expenses and stress how it is difficult for the working poor to get by as rents increase.

Mr. Speaker, yes, the legislation as echoed by the Minister is correct. The landlord can have one increase a year. But, Mr. Speaker, we continue to leave our residents unprotected from what amount that may be in the end.

Mr. Speaker, I agree wholeheartedly that the landlord needs to cover their costs and certainly make a reasonable profit. I support this fully. But, Mr. Speaker, at the cost to the residents when they cannot afford their rent anymore, I start to question about what is considered reasonable.

Mr. Speaker, the rental office, it is true, is out there to hear complaints and concerns. But, Mr. Speaker, when you write or even cry to the rentals officer, it does nothing more than be a therapeutic release, because they cannot produce any results from the fact that if you cry or write or complain about what increase you have received, they just sit there with their hands tied.

Mr. Speaker, as I have said before, what the issue really comes down to is this: the ball is in the court of the landlord. How nice are they this time around? How generous are they going to be on the increase? How unfriendly are they going to be with the increase? Mr. Speaker, we can deal with this quite simply with the Residential Tenancies Act. I challenge the Minister of Justice to bring forward an amendment that protects working families, because we leave them certainly exposed to the market rents that could be increased.

Mr. Speaker, if the Minister of Justice does not want to support and protect working people, I can assure you that there are Members over on this side of the House that will work to do so. Mr. Speaker, again I say, let’s not call this rent control, but let’s call this fair protection for working families. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.

Thank you, Mr. Hawkins. The honourable Member for Nunakput, Mr. Jacobson.