Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 26, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba Brian readers9 forum saturday free press a h july it i i Manitoba rent controls abuse property landlords taking a big hit rent control was introduced in the 1970s during a time of High inflation and Low vacancy yet it remains in place today when inflation is Low and vacancy rates Are Winnipeg landlord John Kenny believes the time has come to get rid of rent con today he explains As a Small Manitoba landlord i am opposed to rent this opposition is not motivated by philosophical or political Ideal it is rooted in economic it is an Issue magnified by the fact that As of july the City of Winnipeg property tax Bill on one of my apartment buildings increased by Over 30 per this is what a 30 per cent property tax hike Means to me up to june the property taxes charged against this building accounted for 10 per cent of the total Revenue generated by the As of july the property taxes that must be paid increased to per cent of i lost per cent of my annual Gross rental income to this single tax in Early 1997 the provincial government issued a guideline that along with other May attempt to raise rent by 1 per i use the phrase May attempt to raise As a representation of while Manitoba has posted a guide line that might allow rents to Rise by one per each landlord must Send All tenants a written notice of the proposed prepare to defend their claim should any of the tenants face the possibility of their pro posed increase being rejected by the same provincial authority who set the one per cent run the risk that the rents now charged might be ordered rolled John Kenny this process highlights one of the main reasons for my objection to rent Manitoba rent controls have opened a doorway through which heavy handed politicians and bureaucrats can abuse Manitoba property the specific rules they apply Are Complex and arbitrarily applied thus harming property owners and their families who Are often forced into Tim econ suming and debilitating Legal Winnipeg suffers heavy economic losses because of these provincially applied rent they Are responsible for a reduction in the number of new rental units being built How Many new apartments have opened up in the past few years a general deterioration of rental units and an acceleration of foreclosures and abandonment especially in the Core area which is rapidly Slid ing into rent controls Are a landlord subsidized social policy used by politicians who have been awarding themselves pay increases of five per cent a year and entrenched bureaucrats who rely on rent controls for their Well paid because ten ants vastly outnumber property owners cannot get Relief because of the tyranny of the major the system lacks it is Dis focusing exclusively upon the private govern ment having excluded Public housing from its own Laws and there Are also vast differences Between what is expected of land lords versus if tenants had to face the same capricious controls As landlords it would mean that each tenant would have to ask the Provin Cial government for permission to move into a rental unit where the new rent was higher than they were presently a further problem is created by the Way annual rent increases Are the process is landlords cant appear to offer comments or object nobody knows what voodoo mathematics Are used in the process or what other considerations Are factored All landlords see is the Annu Al descending Stone Tablet bearing a percentile figure that is always lower than the Cost of these guideline engineered in never swing in favour of each year landlords lose a Little More and each year the value of their property As Edmund Burke so eloquently put where secrecy Justice a recent report by the american association for Small property own assessed the Impact of rent control on Small property a Survey of the financial condition of study participants showed that con trolled rents were Well below a realistic Market rental i believe that a similar Independent conducted Here in would show the same the time has come to end rent Portage and main is a weekly column featuring the views of if you would like to write a please Contact Brian editorial Page at landlord contends rent controls Lead to economic letters to the let direct to compete fairly the arrogance of the Cana Dian broadcast Industry never ceases to amaze no service for dish free june they demand that direct cease beaming their signal into Canadian Homes or they will bring Mega lawsuits against if that Doest then they will crawl behind the skirts of the Federal government and have them try and Stop they state that they Are paying for the Canadian distribution rights on some of the programs distributed by direct yet they Are not Able to deliver them and so canadians Are denied a More varied selection of to my Cable supplier offers me 29 Chan Nels of which three Are French and oth ers have duplicate programs of what is offered on the this costs me approximately a direct offers 42 varied channels for it is easy to see which is the better it is time the Federal government butt out of this argument and Tell the Canadian broadcast Industry to meet the Competition and Supply a better that Way they will not have to worry about Winnipeg three cheers for Currie Park a Friend in Winnipeg advised me that a Park on Wellington Crescent was recently renamed in honour of Andy Currie and his service to the i am absolutely delighted to hear i was not a close Friend of andys but observed his activities Over the 40 plus years i lived in your fair he had More careers than you could shake a stick at and excelled in All of most particularly he gave extraordinary service to the City of Winnipeg in his work with the school Board and the Parks and recreation in All of his years of service he never sought the limelight and so those who didst know him were not aware of his it is therefore so very fitting that Winnipeg should now have Andrew Currie Park and i commend the City for their Douglas Farncomb King How to reach us the free press welcomes letters from letters must be signed and should include a clearly printed address and Telephone names will be published but not All letters May be edited for style and Short letters Are less Likely to be please address letters to letters to the Winnipeg free 1355 Mountain Winnipeg letters can be sent to our fax number letters May be submitted through the internet at . Letters sent via the internet obviously cannot be but must include Home address and Telephone return of purse prompts big thanks on july received a parcel through the mail containing most of the contents of a Pouch purse i had lost a number of weeks i wish to express my deep appreciation to the person who so kindly took the trouble to return these things to As locks and keys to my House and car have Long since been the fact that my original keys were not included no longer what does matter is the fact that my per Sonal identity family pictures and hearing Aid Are now in my posses it is probable that the person who mailed this parcel to me was not the same person who found the purse orig Many thanks to the one who took the time and Effort to bring about a reasonably Happy ending to a very stressful Winnipeg upgrading gives unfair advantage i object to special academic pro Grams fostered by government school divisions in Manitoba that Dis one such program is described in the free press most Stu dents in jobs corps improved Marks july Why should students needing upgrading be Given the advantage in the student Job Market Over the average schools should do upgrading the students in this article Are Reader chides mayor Thompson for sending councillors on selected from Only specific school Divi Sions for jobs in the province of Man the students who dont need upgrading need jobs As Well As those in the special academic As a Par ent on a fixed income both our son at Rocc and our daughter in High school need summer jobs in order to proceed in their educational without summer employment their education is programs As implemented creates student unemployment for those students who try on their own to Maureen Hansen Winnipeg do As i not As i do in the beginning of chief com missioner Rick Frost said All out of province travel should be suspended until Winnipeg could get a handle on How much the flood was going to True to mayor Thompsons form she ignored his request and spent to Send seven councillors to Ottawa for a five of these councillors Are mayor Thompsons special friends from her executive policy they include Shaugh Tim Rudolph and these councillors must like the mayor that cutting Back is other Peoples could not one or two councillors go and report Back to the rest Michael Potras Winnipeg i keep hearing mayor Susan Thomp son telling the citizens of Winnipeg How we All have to make sacrifices for Winnipeg to solve its financial prob i assume she Means we Are to do As she says and not As she chess is not a big Yawn in this mornings Winnipeg free something was put in about the Canadian open chess championships a picture of a boy yawning while his father plays the Cap Tion begins when will this end if youre not in the chess can be i am sure that you have Many sub scribers like myself who Are interested in and Are not pleased with your downplay of this important event that Winnipeg is fortunate to be Host Louis Kessler Winnipeg Drivers licence Ripoff in Manitoba after living in Winnipeg for a period last i moved to South Dakota in june of purchased my South Dakota Drivers licence last the licence is valid for five years and they charged me this Means that the Cost for my Drivers licence is per i believe this is considerably less than the per year Cost of a Drivers licence in i just wanted the people of Winnipeg to know How badly they Are being ripped off by the Manitoba govern Jim Sutherland up fiddles while ecology Burns we were quite flabbergasted at the tone of your editorial of july 15 in which you endeavour to equate the Green peace with the the most paradoxical aspect is that As a renowned print you seem to stand on the Fence of ecological disaster and that of business of course the Winnipeg free press is free to follow the dictates of its conscience or please its we might As Well look on with folded arms at the ques Tion of the destruction the Ozone layer and so Winnipeg doonesbury by Garry Trudeau ;