Winnipeg Free Press
Jan 11, 2001
Trustee seeks to revive inner city
By Nick Martin
The Doer government should abolish rent controls immediately if it wants to revive the inner city, Winnipeg School Division Trustee Mario Santos says.
Santos said the plummeting property values through much of the division will have a devastating effect on Winnipeg One's budget. Senior administrators will file a report next week analyzing the impact of the latest city wide reassessment, said Santos, named the division's finance chairman Monday night.
"You lift rent controls, people are going to start spending money. That's the bottom line," Santos said.
He said landlords will fix up rental housing - thereby raising property values and the division's assessment base - if they can get higher rents to make investment worthwhile.
"If they did study, when did the inner core start to go down the tubes, check rent controls. If rent controls were lifted, you'd see an immediate upsurge in construction," Santos said. "supply and demand works. If people can't afford it, that when the safety net kicks in."
Consumer and Corporate Affairs Minister Ron Lemieux quickly deep-sixed Santos demand.
"Rent controls are not going to go, Lemieux said. "They're there to protect low income people, people on fixed incomes, senior citizens," said Lemieux, who's working with the city and Ottawa to develop along term strategy to increase and improve housing stocks in the inner city.
Winnipeg One board chairwoman Liz Ambrose emphasized that Santos is speaking only for himself.
"Oh yeah. It's out of the blue," she said. "The issue is probably a lot more complex than that." Ambrose said revitalizing the inner city require a long-range plan for business, cultural and housing development.
Acting mayor Lillian Thomas said council hasn't discussed rent controls, but she believes they work. "My concern is ensuring affordable housing. That's just as important as increasing the property tax base," Thomas said.
Winnipeg Real Estate Board first vice-president Lorne Weiss lauded Santos's stand.
"We think rent controls have outlived their usefulness. The housing stock, as a result of rent controls, has diminished in quantity and quality," Weiss said.
"Maybe welfare rates shouldn't be subsidized on the backs of owners," he said.
If the province lifted rent controls and provided greater subsidies to low-income tenants, inner-city revitalization would follow, Weiss said.
Meanwhile, Santos said trustees could know by next week what the impact will be of Centra Gas rate hikes on its 2001 budget.
Winnipeg One paid $2.274 million for natural gas during a mild winter last year, more than one per cent of its $225 million budget. This year, it planned for a 25 to 30 per cent increase in natural gas prices when it projected a 2.4 per cent increase in local school taxes to maintain current levels of staff and programs. However, Centra Gas has requested a 32 to 48 per cent jump, which combined with a hash winter, could push the bill to at least $3.87 million.