Provincial parties clash over how best to improve Alberta's affordable housing stock
CBC
Increasing Alberta's housing stock and expanding seniors' lodges are among the ways Premier Danielle Smith wants her social services minister to combat an increasingly costly housing market.
In a Thursday mandate letter to Seniors, Community and Social Services Minister Jason Nixon, Smith asks him to incentivize new home construction and create more financing options for prospective homeowners.
"Overcoming this challenge will require a multi-ministry effort and a willingness to be creative and innovative while avoiding simplistic knee-jerk policies, such as rent control, that will only deepen the crisis by driving out investment in new builds," Smith wrote in her letter.
That sentiment echoes Nixon's comments earlier this week that the United Conservative Party government won't cap rent increases in the province.
Smith instructed Nixon to continue the government's existing housing strategy, which calls for the divestment of some of the province's stock of social housing.
Lori Sigurdson, the Opposition NDP's critic for seniors' issues, continuing care and home care, says the mandate lacks key measures that could curtail some of the difficulties people have in finding comfortable, safe places to live.
Sigurdson says she hears from people who have to move suddenly or become homeless because landlords impose dramatic rent increases.
A rent supplement program would immediately provide some relief, she said.
If government plans to stimulate the construction of affordable housing, Sigurdson said it must ink long-term agreements that won't see buildings resold to private owners who will later jack up the rent.
"We need affordable housing in perpetuity," she said. "Forever. We don't just need it for a short period of time."
Nixon's letter also says he should ensure people with "severe disabilities" have seamless help from diagnosis into adulthood.
Trish Bowman, CEO of Inclusion Alberta, said although that's a good sentiment, she questions how the premier defines a severe disability.
Bowman was disappointed the letter neglects to mention the Persons with Developmental Disabilities (PDD) program or the Family Support for Children with Disabilities (FSCD) program.
PDD funds supports and services that help nearly 13,000 disabled adults to live as independently as possible in their community, according to the ministry's annual report.