Something happened in the Legislature yesterday that has not been seen for many years- citizens took a Minister’s office by storm and demanded action to protect their right to affordable housing. Thirty people, including a Rwandan woman and her baby, seniors, and people with disabilities forced the Minister of Housing, Ray Danyluk, to sit and listen for an hour to their stories of rent gouging and anxiety, frustration and anger at a government that is not acting decisively to help solve the growing affordability gap in housing. We in the Liberal Party will see tomorrow, with the introduction of Bill 34 – Residential Tenancies Act– whether he got the message: temporary rent control is needed to save people’s basic rights. If this government continues to refuse to address this desperate need, more people will descend on their politicians, all over the province!

Have you written to your MLA lately? This is a defining issue for a moral government.

Below are a few articles about yesterday’s action:
Calgary Herald: Angry renters storm Tory office; Premier wants to hear stories of housing crisis
Calgary Sun: Confusion reigns on housing issue
Edmonton Journal: Relent on rent controls, Tories urged; Confrontation arranged by opposition yields ‘compelling stories’: minister
Edmonton Sun: Group confronts minister over rent

I also asked some questions in the Legislature on this issue on Monday, and you can read, or listen to them below. Ray Danyluk suggested to me that he “would very much encourage the member opposite [me] to bring forward those concerns [about housing] to ourselves, also through a toll-free number to Service Alberta”. Yesterday we did just that, we brought concerned citizens to him so that he could hear about the crisis first-hand. We also found out that the toll-free number he spoke of offers no support for citizens facing a housing emergency, and that the relief programs are not yet ready to be administered.

Read my questions: Questions on Affordable Housing May 7
Listen: