Rent Controls Proven to hurt Poor

Thankfully, the Alberta government did not include rent controls in their new housing bill, which was passed May 10th. Yet the short sighted Liberals and NDs still want Alberta to repeat history by imposing rent controls. Yes, housing costs in Alberta are skyrocketing, and it's natural that every well-meaning political pollyanna feel the urge to "do something". But in every jurisdiction in history rent controls have ultimately led to fewer affordable housing units, -not more.

Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it. If Comrade Taft and associates successfully stampede the (admitedly indecisive) Stelmach government into enacting rent controls we’ll see rents automatically rise to the maximum allowed by the law. Even now, the mere threat of Ham-fisted government intervention has prompted landlords to raise rents so as to get in before rent controls freeze increases. Rent controls will freeze private construction of multifamily housing.
Winnipeg, a City which has had rent controls for years, has not had a single new privately-built Apartment development since the early 1990's. If Alberta imposes rent controls, the only new developments will be those built with taxpayer’s money. There will be mass evictions as apartment-block owners use shell corporations to flip ownership of apartment houses every time they want a rent increase. Government regulations will make it be harder than ever for the little guy with one or two investment properties to be a successful landlord. These things have happened every time and in every place rent controls have been imposed on the marketplace. (Here's a link to one example: How Rent Control Killed Affordable Housing in Winnipeg)

Perhaps this is why the socialists and new age thinkers have stripped our school system of meaningful history lessons in favor of the politically correct views of the day; They can't accept that their policies don't work, and they're hoping that sooner or later there’ll be enough mal-educated voters who can be fooled into allowing them another chance to enact their failed policies of big government and planned economies.

Don't think I'm heartless. I don't oppose direct assistance for destitute seniors and AISH victims. I think they deserve our special consideration.

Pretty well everyone else should just suck it up... or leave.

If it costs too much to live here move away. You're allowed to leave, this isn't the Soviet Union. I'm tired of listening to whiny arts or education grads whining that they're too good to waste their degrees by working in the oil industry.
If the best you can manage in this economy is a minimum wage job then you better settle for a minimum wage standard of living, (as in shared accomodations). The charter of rights and freedoms doesn't include a right to a thousand square feet of living space at taxpayer expense.

Like I said earlier, these are my opinions. They don't have to be yours. But don't think for a second that I'm going to willingly pay for your #$*&@>#?! welfare state.