Rent and affordability driving Sask. renters to the polls this election

Liam O'Connor · CBC News

· Posted: Apr 10, 2025 7:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 11 minutes ago

Shane Prpich has been a renter his full big beingness and says it has ne'er been little affordable. That's driving him to the polls this national election.

The 48-year-old Saskatoon autochthonal has been renting successful the metropolis since 2005, aft a stint renting successful Calgary.

Prpich said helium utilized to beryllium a satellite traveller — a payment of renting — but those days are agelong gone.

"I had a comfy living, rent was affordable, my wages were decent, I had disposable income, I traveled, I went to assemblage [and] I could spend to spell to university," Prpich said successful a telephone telephone interrogation with CBC.

Prpich has rented each implicit Saskatoon. In his aboriginal days helium paid astir $400 a month. Fast guardant to contiguous and helium pays $1,119 a period — soon going up to $1,325  — for a spot successful the city's northeast.

"Energy, food, clothing, everything skyrocketed successful my lifetime, but the worst happening has ever been housing, and rent conscionable keeps going up and up and up.… I've ne'er truly had an accidental to bargain a home," helium said.

"Right present my wage is $60,000 a year. I'm astatine the mean Canadian salary, truthful if I can't spend to bargain a home, the mean Canadian can't spend to bargain a home."

While Saskatoon has immoderate of the cheapest rents nationally astatine $1,276 for a 1 chamber and $1,516 for a 2 bedroom, the year-over-year summation successful terms for some is much than six per cent, according to the latest information from Rentals.ca for the period of March.

Regina's mean rent is $1,242 for a 1 bedroom and $1,486 for a 2 bedroom. Year-over-year rent for a 1 chamber decreased by 2 per cent.

Increasing lodging supply, core issue

Prpich said his ballot is for argumentation that reflects more and cheaper lodging supply.

Forty-five per cent of Canadians are acrophobic astir their lodging affordability, according to the astir caller Canadian Social Survey done by Statistics Canada successful 2024.

Statistics besides bespeak 69 per cent of Canadians successful the Prairies face one oregon much lodging challenges.

Organizations similar Regina's Anti-Poverty Ministry privation the national authorities to recommit to increasing societal lodging banal successful the province.

"There was a programme from 1974 to 1993 which was phased retired and yet chopped disconnected successful 1993 wherever determination were important national commitments to grow the societal lodging banal nationally," Gilmer, who works with the anti-poverty ministry, said. 

"We truly judge that this is the clip for the national authorities to measurement backmost in, successful a important way."

Gilmer said he has clients paying much than 80 per cent of their full income connected rent — successful immoderate cases much than 100 per cent.

He's pushing for much societal lodging with rent based connected income, pursuing the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) guidelines of a household not paying much than 30 per cent of their income connected structure related costs.

• CBC's it tracking the latest nationalist enactment plaforms.

ACORN calls for nationalist rent freeze

In airy of the tariffs Canada faces, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) wants to spot a nationalist rent frost for astatine slightest 3 months from immoderate enactment forms government.

ACORN is simply a nationalist national of low-to-middle income renters with offices crossed the country.

"We saw that successful the pandemic the authorities acted excessively precocious and truthful galore radical mislaid their housing and, you know, it caused adjacent much chaos, truthful we want, we request whoever is elected to beryllium proactive connected these things," nationalist ACORN representative Nichola Talyor said.

Taylor said the enactment besides wants to spot a nationalist rent power plan to prohibition "predatory practices" similar fixed word leases.

Gilmer, from the anti-poverty ministry, echoed those thoughts connected rent control.

"The occupation is that we've had respective large [rent] spikes implicit the people of the past 30 years and if we had had tenable rent power authorities successful place, we wouldn't beryllium dealing with the concern that we are now," Gilmer said.

Derek Cameron, a renter and PhD pupil successful Saskatoon, said he's besides unfastened to rent control, but inactive wants to spot argumentation that thinks agelong term, nudging municipalities to loosen rules that make building lodging much complicated.

"I deliberation things similar rent power and worldly similar that, they surely tin work, but they bash request to beryllium paired with things that are going to marque it easier to build," Cameron said.

For now, Cameron said he's undecided connected who he's going to ballot for.