FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 17, 2026
Chender Misleads on Rent Control
Halifax — Nova Scotia NDP Leader Claudia Chender is making false and misleading statements about the impact of rent control.
On Monday, June 15, 2026, Chender spoke on CityNews 95.7, asserting that jurisdictions with rent control are seeing rents stabilize or decline and that such policies improve affordability.
Rental Housing Providers Nova Scotia said Chender’s statements are not supported by the data.
“Across Canada, some of the most affordable rental markets are in provinces without rent control, including Alberta and Saskatchewan,” said Kevin Russell, Executive Director of RHPNS. “According to national rent data, average rents in those provinces remain significantly lower than in Nova Scotia and in jurisdictions with stricter rent regulation.”
Recent data shows average rents in Saskatchewan and Alberta are well below those in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Quebec, and British Columbia, despite provinces like Nova Scotia having more restrictive rent control regimes.
RHPNS also pointed to testimony before the Nova Scotia Legislature’s Community Services Committee on June 2, 2026, where even tenant advocates acknowledged the relative affordability of those markets.
“When you can get rents for $1,200 a month in Edmonton and Regina, what’s keeping me here?” said Heather Clark, Chair of the Halifax-Mainland Chapter of ACORN, in her remarks to the committee.
Russell noted that before rent control was introduced in Nova Scotia in 2020, rents in the province were increasing at a lower rate than in rent-controlled jurisdictions such as Ontario and British Columbia. He also pointed out that Nova Scotia’s independent Affordable Housing Commission recommended in 2021 that rent control be removed once the COVID-19 state of emergency ended.
RHPNS warned the NDP, PCs, and Liberals in 2021 that making rent control permanent would increase costs for tenants.
“The solution to rental housing affordability, as we see and as ACORN has noted, is in places like Alberta and Saskatchewan that have no rent control,” said Russell. “It’s time that politicians like Claudia Chender stop attacking rental housing providers with falsehoods and sit down and work with our industry on solutions.”
RHPNS also raised concerns about the lack of scrutiny applied to these claims during the interview.
“It’s important that public discussions about housing are grounded in evidence,” added Russell. “Listeners were left with the impression that rent control directly leads to lower rents, when the data shows the opposite.”
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Media Contact
Kevin Russell
Cell: 902-789-0946
Email: kevin@rhpns.ca