Notley NDP working to reduce housing options in Alberta.

I guess it shouldn’t be too surprising to see the NDP targeting landlords with their latest legislation. Landlords represent everything socialists despise. Landlords have worked hard, acquired property and are trying to become more prosperous through using the property that they own.

Property. Work. Profit. All evil in the eyes of the hard left accidental government of Alberta.

Like socialism itself, rent controls are a proven failure that leftists try over and over and over again with invariably negative outcomes. The only reason that the Notley NDP isn’t going down the rent control road right now is that there is a surplus of rental property available in our moribund economy and rents are dropping naturally. Since rent control isn’t on the table right now, the next best thing for socialists is regulation.

The Notley NDP plans to table legislation making it illegal for property owners to have adult only rental properties. Landlords will be forced to rent to families and you can rest assured that undesirable tenants will use the threat of age discrimination in order to force their way into rental properties that they normally would never have qualified for.

Who cares about property rights? How dare the owner of a property get to choose who may actually reside within that property? Those monsters!

Our legislation is already so tenant heavy in the allocation of rights that literal absurdities are happening.

In Cardston, a man is squatting in a shed rent free on a driveway of a home. It is his ex-girlfriend who had the lease and this bum hasn’t paid a dime. Despite this, the landlord can’t evict this parasite and has to go through a drawn out court action at great expense. It is outright insane and this sort of story is happening to varying degrees on rental properties throughout the province. 

These regulations will have the same inevitable effect that rent controls do. They will lead to a reduction in available rental properties as it becomes increasingly unviable to invest in these kinds of properties. As landlords flee the rental market and development of rental properties slump, a rental crunch ensues. Then renters find themselves more screwed than ever as rents skyrocket (that supply & demand concept that continues to elude the left).

The next response from leftist governments when private enterprise flees a market is predictable as well. The government will take on the role of providing housing.

Government housing around the world is invariably shitty. If you want bureaucratically run slums, this is the way to do it. Ghettos are created while the productive flee ever more deeply into the suburbs. Thankfully, our accidental government wont be in power long enough to get to that end but it will take some doing to undo this damage and this assault on property owners.

Plenty of landlords willingly rent to families. Some, however choose not do. They should be allowed to. It is their own damned property after all. Supply and demand will ensure that enough housing is available for all demographics in the long run if government will keep its meddling hands out of the market. Alas, that is contrary to the nature of the Notley NDP and the damage will be done.

4 thoughts on “Notley NDP working to reduce housing options in Alberta.

  1. We certainly do need stronger protection of bona fide property rights. Where do the UCP stand on property rights in general?

  2. Way back 30-35 years ago “once upon a time in the west” a dipper gov in BC decided to clamp down on “evil landlords” in Victoria BC
    Unintended results, evil landlords, went strata title buy it or move, result nothing much in rental available.
    Socalism, like all other “isms” sucks

  3. The Landlord/Tenant Act here in B.C. is a classic piece of NDP legislation,with all the rights on the tenant,and none on the property owner.

    I quit renting out my property after several years,just got worn out with constant hassles,and don’t tell me I chose the wrong persons, they lie like the experts they are,and have friends pose as former landlords so their references always check out.

    How about the nice 35-ish single Mother, allegedly widowed, with the three teenaged boys,all nicely dressed and attending high school? Only problem is the youngest boy is one of the biggest drug dealers in town. The fine young man with references up the yingyang,all checked out, turns out to be a pedophile whose drunken and drugged parties drew the RCMP,an ambulance and a 13 year old girl OD’d, on MY property.The cops acted like it was my fault.

    Or the lovely woman who just moved to town ,again a widow,allegedly,and try to check THAT out some time, on welfare but her social worker vouched for her good character, who couldn’t pay the rent after six months and whose lovely children totally trashed the place before they left. Contacted the social worker about the 14,000 dollars in damage, Every door and window in the place smashed,even the window and door frames, she replies,”well you get to keep their damage deposit”,of $600, but no social services doesn’t reimburse landlords for damage done by their clients,even after they’ve “vouched” for them.

    Hey,do I sound bitter? I hope so,because I am. Fortunately,the market went up so I sold the last place for a tidy profit to a nice family of hard working people,and their home couldn’t look nicer. Renters? Imho, about 80% or higher are pure deadbeats,the rest okay and actually pay the rent. If you’re really lucky,and the stars are properly aligned,you might get one of the 20%. It’s a 1/5 chance.

    I’m not the least bit surprised the Alberta Dipper government is going to hose property owners and enact legislation weighted about 95% for the poor renter,and 5% for the evil landlords. It’s what they do. Maybe De Gubbermint can take over the rental business,and create instant ghettos,like everywhere else in the world where they do that.

    Gotta grow the fodder for the justice system somewhere.

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