June 20, 2024
FREDERICTON – Green Party leader David Coon is calling out Premier Higgs for caving to the lobbying of large corporate property owners after his cabinet quietly passed new regulations making it easier for them to raise rents above the inflation rate.
“Once again Premier Higgs has shown us where his allegiance is, and it’s not to tenants,” said Coon. “First he eliminated his temporary rent cap that was designed to protect tenants from unaffordable rent increases, and now he is weakening the inadequate system that has replaced it.”
New regulations secretly passed by Higgs’ cabinet will allow landlords to impose larger rent increases on tenants without being required to phase them in over multiple years. The onus will continue to be on tenants to request phased in increases, rather than on landlords, as would be the case with a rent cap.
In June 2021, the Higgs government defeated a bill proposed by Coon that would have created a permanent rent cap in New Brunswick. Under pressure, Higgs later imposed a one-year temporary rent cap that has since expired.
“One of the first actions I’d take as Premier is to reinstitute a permanent rent cap to protect renters from unaffordable rent increases,” said Coon. “Minister Green’s weak alternative to a rent cap just doesn’t cut it.”
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