Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker,
WHEREAS adequate and affordable housing is the most important concern of many Northerners;
AND WHEREAS without adequate, affordable, and accessible housing, individuals and families lack the basis for healthy living, successful educational participation, security of employment, and participation as full members in the economies, health, and development of our communities;
AND WHEREAS excessive and unexpected rental increases in private rental units can result in debilitating rents, especially upon lowincome earners;
AND WHEREAS renters require protection and support against high costs of living for inadequate lodging circumstances;
AND WHEREAS the low vacancy rate indicates strong rental market demand and puts upward pressure on rental prices;
AND WHEREAS the Northwest Territories Residential Tenancies Act does not include a mechanism which dictates how much a landlord can increase their rent, only how often that rent increase can occur.
NOW THEREFORE I MOVE, seconded by the honourable Member for Frame Lake, that this Legislative Assembly recommends that the Government of the Northwest Territories update the Northwest Territories Residential Tenancies Act to include maximum allowable rent adjustments which are no more than the fiveyear average of the Canada Consumer Price Index;
AND FURTHER, the Government include in the Northwest Territories Residential Tenancies Act that increases to rent above the fiveyear average of the Canada Consumer Price Index can be applied for by private landlords to the Northwest Territories' rental officer;
AND FURTHER, the Government of the Northwest Territories provide a response to this motion within 120 days. And I will request a recorded vote, Mr. Speaker. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I think that my motion is pretty selfexplanatory. Over the last while we have seen an increase in rents in our market here in Yellowknife, and in some cases as much as 46 percent people's rent has increased in one month. We do not currently, as I stated, have any parameters or measures in place in the Residential Tenancies Act to protect renters against high increases to their rent. Only we limit the amount of times or when the landlords can actually bring those increases forward.
As part of this motion, I did look at a jurisdictional scan, Mr. Speaker, of different territories, different provinces, and what they're doing. Currently there are six jurisdictions that have maximum allowable rent increases, which is British Columbia, Manitoba, Ontario, PEI, Nova Scotia, and the Yukon. There are two that have jurisdictions with recommended maximum of allowable rent increases, but this is not in force, and that's in Quebec and New Brunswick. And then there are five left that don't have any limitations to the amount of the rent increase, which includes the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Mr. Speaker, why I think that this is so important to do is that given the very, very low vacancy rate right now in our territory for the rental market, private rental units, it leaves our residents vulnerable. As we can see, it's very apparent to large landlords that they can just come in and increase the rent in the apartment without doing any upgrades and sometimes not even providing any heat to the people living in the apartments. I think it sets a dangerous precedent if we don't do anything now to stop this because there's nothing that's going to stop large REITs, like Northview, from deciding that they don't want to rent to low income families and instead would rather rent to the professionals and the students that may be moving north in the next while. We need these people as well but, in this case, it's going to be on the backs of our vulnerable people. So therefore, Mr. Speaker, I think it's very important that we set this precedent now, and I welcome the debate from my colleagues. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Great Slave. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Frame Lake.
Merci, Monsieur le President. I want to thank the mover for the work on this motion. I think we need to have this discussion and debate, Mr. Speaker. This is one of the tools that we can have in our arsenal to try to prevent homelessness, and I think we need as I said, we need to have this discussion and debate.
You know, if you look at the motion, this is a request for this issue to be examined. We're going to hear from the government side about this. And of course if the government is not prepared to take action, it might be the subject of a potential private Member's bill at some point. But I do think we need to have this discussion and debate. And I look forward to the response from the government on this. I will be supporting the motion. Mahsi, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member for Frame Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Tu NedheWiilideh.
Yeah, thank you, Mr. Speaker. And I too support this motion. You know, we've been housing's a big issue here in the Northwest Territories. And, you know, in my riding in particular, you know, it's to the point where I even have to put documents and everything else on the floor here just to finally get any action. And we already know that there's big problem we actually have a housing crisis here in the Northwest Territories. We have no plan. When I take a look at what Nunavut's doing, when we take a look at what, you know, our the way we handle housing here in the Northwest Territories and we're still we're still a shortage of public housing in our communities. You know, and we again, we got no new construction in our communities for a very long time. And so what's going on now I'm dealing with I also tabled documents in this House about my some of my constituents having cockroaches and all that stuff running around their units. It's you know, and yet the landlords don't do anything. You know, and I'm really concerned about that. So,
Yes, you know, this some of the leases we also have, they're monthtomonth leases. You know, and when you do that, and it gives an opportunity for the landlord to increase their rent any time they want. And so we can't manage this so we need to have a mechanism, a tool in our tool chest, to say that this is something that we could use to manage that. So, Mr. Speaker, I do support the motion. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Tu NedheWiilideh. The motion is in order. To the motion. Member for Kam Lake.
Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the motion brought forward by my colleague from Great Slave, and I also appreciate the work that was put into the jurisdictional scan so that we know what the rest of Canada looks like. Canadian jurisdictions are quite obviously split as far as rent increase caps are concerned, but our sister territory to the west, Yukon, does allow a buffer against the impacts of high inflation as measured by CPI but this is to a maximum of 5 percent.
Mr. Speaker, I understand a need for certainty, but this also needs to be balanced with the sustainability of the housing sector and availability of more developers to get involved. Landlords cannot be left footing the bill when inflation exceeds the rent cap and developers and landlords also need to be able, Mr. Speaker, to keep rents affordable but need a mechanism to address unexpected expenses like a broken furnace, boiler, if flooding occurs. Things happen, and those things need to be able to be addressed, Mr. Speaker.
I also want to ensure that the housing coops, which are provided at cost, can continue to be responsive to what the cost actually is and continue to operate. Kam Lake is lucky to have two housing coops, and I think the North would benefit from having more housing opportunities like that.
There's other ways the GNWT can also play a role in ensuring that rents don't go through the roof and that affordable housing exists outside of the department of housing. And those roles are things like addressing the funding gap, increasing availability of land, dealing with the affordability of energy, addressing supply chain challenges and the cost of goods, especially in our small communities, Mr. Speaker.
Mr. Speaker, I will be supporting this motion today because it simply asks the government to explore the balance between affordable housing and, importantly, sustaining the industry for developers. But there is a need, in my opinion, for exceptions to these rules and for escape clauses that acknowledge the cost of maintaining infrastructure in the Northwest Territories. And I really want to highlight that, that we don't want to end up with no one willing to enter the housing game because there's no certainty in them actually being able to recoup the cost of being part of that community and that industry that we very much need. Thank you.
Thank you, Member for Kam Lake. The motion is in order. To the motion. Acting Government House Leader.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, as this motion contains the recommendations to the government, Cabinet will be abstaining. We look forward to reviewing the recommendation and providing a full response within 120 days. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Minister. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. Member for Great Slave. To closing debate.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My first motion, so still learning how it call works. I want to thank my colleagues for being a lot more eloquent than I was in explaining some of the rationale around why this is needed. And, really, the intent is not to kneecap the landlords, or particularly not the small landlords. I really want them to feel that, you know, that they're supported and they're really needed in our territory and that is why, at my colleague's suggestion, that we did include the piece around the potential to apply to the rental office for an increase.
Mostly, Mr. Speaker, I just wanted to get the dialogue started. I wanted the territory's residents to understand and know that their leadership is listening to them and that we hear them and that we do understand that the cost of living is becoming quite unbearable. Mr. Speaker, I was at the store yesterday and the cat food's gone up $4 a bag. So everywhere you look and turn, things are getting more expensive. So I appreciate my colleague's support on this. Thank you.
