New Premier, Same Old Tired Policy

At their Annual General Meeting, members of the Alberta Progressive Conservatives voted to avoid rent controls, backing the Stelmach government's position. This would appear to have the current Stelmach government just as ideologically blind as the previous Klein administration. The holy market must not be interfered with, even if that market is completely failing to provide the necessities of life. Homelessness is reaching epidemic proportions in Alberta as the number of rental units falls and the owners of the few rental units available are either converting them to condos or doubling or even tripling the rents. It would appear that the market, far from providing affordable housing, is doing exactly the opposite.

The problem is twofold for the Alberta Tories. First off, they are incapable of seeing anything but the market as a solution for a problem. So they are incapable of trying anything that may temporarily alleviate a problem. Affordable housing in Alberta has been an issue for at least three years, probably more and the all-so holy market has yet to even announce the construction of new rental housing, let alone actually construct some. Interviews with the corporations that control the rental market state that rents must increase even more for them to even consider building more units so the market won't be providing new rental units anytime soon. In fact the market has been encouraging the conversion of rental units to condos, making an even tighter rental market even worse. In this economic environment, the market is failing our most vulnerable citizens and the ideologically blind provincial Tories are unwilling to do anything about it.

The second reason the Tories are reluctant to do anything about the housing crunch is money. The provincial Tories bring in about $2 million a year, most of which through corporate donations. So the Alberta Tories are loath to do anything that might interrupt the flow of cash. This means doing whatever business wants, regardless of the consequences to society. In this case, anything that might interfere with corporate landlords from doubling or tripling rents would be injurious to the party bottom line. This means that the provincial government is even reluctant to pay to have affordable rental housing built as that would dilute the market and cost their donors and hence the party money.

So no rent controls. Not even the reasonable control of only increasing rent by the rate of inflation plus 2% which the all-party committee on affordable housing came up with. The only thing the Tories were willing to do was limit rent increases to once a year instead of twice a year, meaning that landlords will simply double the increase they were doing every six months. Rents will continue to soar and many people with good jobs will be forced onto the streets or into the homeless shelters, not to mention those with low pay or fixed incomes. As long as the corporate donations keep rolling in, the Tories don't care.

All this goes to show that despite having a new leader, the Alberta Tories are the same tired old party that is out of touch with the plight of the average Albertan. The question remains is how much longer the Alberta voter will continue to flock to the party like the sheep they are?