Chris Guérette
Saskatchewan Realtors Association
The Saskatchewan NDP recently proposed introducing rent control in our province, a policy they claim will make housing more affordable for renters. It’s an understandable impulse. Rising costs have put real pressure on many families. But as we’ve seen across Canada, rent control doesn’t fix affordability. In fact, it often makes it worse.
Provinces with rent control like Ontario, British Columbia, Quebec, Manitoba, and Prince Edward Island consistently have the highest average rents in the country. Meanwhile, Saskatchewan and Alberta, both without rent control, remain among the most affordable rental markets in Canada.
The evidence speaks clearly: rent control may sound like relief, but it doesn’t deliver it.
According to the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), rent control slows rent increases for tenants who stay in their units, but it also drives up rents in vacant ones. It reduces mobility, discourages new construction, and limits the supply of available homes. When investors, builders, and landlords are faced with restrictive policies, they pull back and the supply problem only deepens. Less housing means higher prices, not lower ones.
Let’s be clear: affordability is a real and growing concern in Saskatchewan. As our population grows through household formation, immigration and interprovincial migration, demand for housing is increasing faster than our ability to build it. Renters, particularly young families and newcomers, are finding it harder to take the next step towards home ownership. That is a challenge we must confront, not with quick fixes, but with policies that expand opportunity and housing choice.
The SRA’s over 1,800 members see these trends every day. They work with families who want to move from renting to owning, with newcomers searching for stable homes, and with communities that are struggling to keep up with the demand. They see how construction delays, permitting bottlenecks, and rising costs, not the absence of rent control, are holding Saskatchewan back from meeting its full housing potential. They know when supply can’t keep up, affordability erodes for everyone.
Rather than applying a policy that looks good on paper but fails in practice, we should focus on what works:
- Building more homes to meet demand across all income levels.
- Speeding up permits and approvals that delay construction.
- Cutting red tape that drives up development costs.
- Targeting support to renters who need it most, through direct assistance programs rather than blanket market controls.
Saskatchewan has a unique opportunity to stay ahead of the national housing challenge, but only if we protect the conditions that allow housing supply to grow. Rent control may seem like a simple solution but it undermines the very supply we need to keep homes affordable.
All of us share a common goal: to make housing affordable and available for all Saskatchewan residents. But rent control is not the way to get there. It’s a band-aid solution that treats symptoms, not causes. The only sustainable path forward is to build more homes, not more bureaucracy.
The Saskatchewan Realtors Association is calling on policymakers in all parties to reject rent control and instead double down on supply-focused solutions. Let’s make it faster and easier to build, approve, and invest in housing right here in our province.
Because if we truly want to help renters, families, and future generations, we need to build, not band-aid.
Chris Guérette is the Chief Executive Officer of the Saskatchewan Realtors Association, representing more than 1,800 Realtors across the province. She was a Saskatchewan Party candidate in 2020.
