New Brunswick’s temporary rent cap is due to expire at the end of the year and the province has yet to decide if it will be extended or not.
Opposition parties say that uncertainty is bad for both tenants and landlords.
“This has created so much confusion, so much uncertainty, for tenants and for landlords,” said Green MLA Megan Mitton.
“What are they going to do, bring in another retroactive cap some time next year? It’s just nonsense. This is not the way to run a government and it’s not the way to protect tenants.”
After more than a year of saying a rent cap would make the province’s housing situation worse, the government reversed course in May of this year, announcing a temporary 3.8 per cent cap on rental increases.
The cap was retroactive, covering the entirety of 2022, meaning some landlords who had raised rent more than 3.8 per cent then had to lower rents in order to make up the difference.
Liberal housing critic Robert Gauvin says the government needs to make its mind up now to provide certainty for both landlords and tenants.
“Six months, they have six months to raise the rents. The notices have been sent. People are afraid, they’re scared, so they have to find a solution, whatever it may be, that have to find a solution to protect the people of New Brunswick,” he said.
Former-Service New Brunswick minister Mary Wilson told reporters on Wednesday that cabinet still hasn’t decided if the cap will be extended or not. She would not answer questions about what information will be used to make that decision and said that caps have proven ineffective in solving housing shortages.
“What we’ve seen in the province that have implemented rent control … it certainly has not solved the affordable housing or lack of inventory problem that we’re trying to address,” she said.
Wilson was shuffled out of cabinet the next day, after former education minister Dominic Cardy’s spectacular resignation forced changes.
Former transportation and infrastructure minister Jill Green took over the post and was also named minister responsible for housing in addition to Service NB.
Both the Liberal and Green parties want to see the cap extended into next year. They argue that a cap is necessary to protect tenants, while the market catches up the need in housing. The province-wide vacancy rate sits at 1.7 per cent, the lowest at any time in the last 20 years.