A weekend rally is being organized at the provincial legislature to support a rent cap extension.
On Thursday, the Higgs government confirmed the 3.8 per cent rent cap currently in place will expire on Dec. 31.
“The rent cap is off the table right now. It was a temporary measure,” Service New Brunswick Jill Green told reporters at the legislature.
ACORN NB, an organization representing low- and moderate-income residents, is organizing Saturday’s rally in Fredericton.
Nichola Taylor, chair of the group, said tenants have already been receiving notices of rent increases, even before this week’s announcement.
“We have already started hearing from tenants who are receiving increases of 20, 30, 40 per cent and even one that received a 100 per cent increase,” said Taylor.
“So we need to fight to get the rent cap [back] and preferably to be made permanent in New Brunswick and set it at two per cent.”
The expiration has the organization worried for the future, especially for those tenants who are already facing financial hardships.
“Some of them are living paycheque to paycheque and wondering where they’re going to get food to put on the table. Seniors who are living on fixed incomes and people who are living with disabilities, these are all vulnerable people and the real risk of homelessness is there [when] the government removes that rent cap,” said Taylor.
ACORN will be joined at the rally by the New Brunswick Tenant Rights Coalition, CUPE NB, the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities, BIPOC Pride Fredericton, and the New Brunswick Federation of Labour.
The rally will begin at 1 p.m. outside of the legislature.
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