How Will Nova Scotia’s Next Premier Handle Affordable Housing And Rent Control?

On February 6, The Nova Scotia Liberal Party will elect a new leader to replace outgoing premier Stephen McNeil. Last week, the three men vying to be the province’s next premier each laid out their vision at a series of question-and-answer session hosted by the Halifax Chamber of Commerce. This week, Huddle is digging into those sessions and exploring where Labi Kousoulis, Randy Delorey, and Iain Rankin stand on some of the most pressing issues in the province. Today we take a look at housing affordability.
 
HALIFAX – One of the major problems the next premier must tackle is housing affordability. Across the province, house prices are climbing at record-breaking rates. In Halifax, the pandemic and ultra-low vacancy rates have combined to create a significant rent affordability crisis.
 
During their respective chats, chamber president Patrick Sullivan asked each candidate how they plan to handle these problems.
 
All three identified the same issue at the root of housing affordability challenges: there simply aren’t enough houses and apartments on the market.
 
As Kousoulis told Sullivan during his question-and-answer session, “it’s a simple supply and demand problem. If there’s no supply, landlords, over time, will keep increasing the rents because they know people have to pay it.”
 
But while all three men agree on the cause of the problem, they had slightly different visions about how to fix it.
 
Tax breaks, task forces, and scrapping density limits
Delorey, the only one of the three candidates who doesn’t directly address housing affordability in his official platform, echoed Kousoulis’ assessment during his own question-and-answer session.
 
“The only way to really solve [this problem] is increasing supply. So the question is: how do we increase the supply to provide opportunities to elevate the spectrum of housing options?” he asked.
 
Delorey didn’t delve too deeply into the specifics of that “how” beyond highlighting the importance of a robust engagement process.
 
He said the province will have to work with municipal and federal partners, as well as with the private sector and not-for-profit organizations, to “tackle the challenges that allow more housing stock to go up more quickly.”
 
“It’s got to be an all hands on deck, again, private sector, nonprofits, and the three levels of government to chart the path,” he said.
 
Rankin also said that collaboration will be key to addressing housing affordability in Nova Scotia. He put forward some details about steps he would take to tackle the issue.
 
“We need to work on incentives for developers to continue to build units and work with municipalities so that the right policies and planning strategies are in place around density bonusing, and other charter amendments,” he said.
 
He also said he would create financial guarantees for not-for-profit organizations to ensure they are incentivized to build more housing.
 
He added that the recently established Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Commission is similar to a task force he proposed and that he would rely on that body to keep tabs on how specific initiatives play out.
 
Kousoulis, meanwhile, told Sullivan he plans to bring forward a plan to “greatly increase the supply of housing” in the HRM, as well as investigate how provincial and municipal taxes are affecting housing affordability.
 
“If you look across our city, if a developer goes to build a building we immediately cut them down by a few floors. That creates more expensive housing,” he said.
 
“The land is the same cost; the services coming in is the same cost; the elevators cost the same whether you’re building one storey or 12. But by building 12 storeys you’re dividing all of those costs among more apartments, lowering your cost of that building.”
 
He argued making a “simple policy change” that removes limits on the number of units a developer can build on one site would dramatically increase housing supply and “lower rents overnight.”
 
“Another major issue is that one-third of your rent is taxes paid to the province and taxes to the HRM,” Kousoulis continued. Because property taxes and HST both significantly impact the cost of development, he argued, the governments collecting those taxes “have to be part of the solution.”
 
Kousoulis said he will look at how the province’s incremental revenues could be put toward “affordable rebates for low-income Nova Scotians or other investments.”
 
Is Rent Control The Answer?
None of the three candidates appear keen on implementing permanent rent control measures in the province.
 
Premier Stephen McNeil has said repeatedly he doesn’t believe rent control is an effective way to tackle housing affordability. However, in November his government put in place a two percent per year rent cap that will last until early 2022, or whenever the provincial state of emergency is lifted.
 
In his leadership platform, Kousoulis has promised a similar measure. He proposes capping rent increases at four percent a year — although his cap would last for four years.
 
Last week, he told Sullivan that landlords and developers have told him such a cap is “reasonable… required, and needed.”
 
“And that is because we as governments have failed our citizens by not creating the conditions to have enough supply of housing,” he said.
 
Rankin, meanwhile, proposes a more lenient rent cap. In his platform, he also promises a four percent limit on rent increases but only on buildings less than 15 years old and only for the duration of the pandemic.
 
For older buildings, Rankin proposes a 10 percent rental increase cap solely for the purpose of preventing “de facto evictions.”
 
Both of Rankin’s caps would be reviewed by his task force once the pandemic is over.
 
In his conversation with Sullivan, Rankin said he believes “it was the right thing to do” to put a temporary rent cap in place during the pandemic.
 
“Most landlords and businesses, they’re good to their tenants and they don’t levy what I think are unreasonable increases in the double digits,” he said. “But I have heard of those so I thought that it was in the public interest to put in place a policy that would limit that happening.”
 
Rankin avoided direct answers about what he thought of a permanent rent cap, however, talking instead about the importance of “[exploring] all options and not ruling out any of our policy choices arbitrarily.”
 
Delorey also weaved around questions about long-term rent caps. During his chat with Sullivan, he fell back on the idea that there’s no single solution to housing affordability.
 

Trevor Nichols
https://huddle.today/how-will-nova-scotias-next-premier-handle-affordable-housing-and-rent-control/