Chender urges province to restore housing minister role and control rising rents

Affordability in Halifax has reached levels comparable to Toronto, according to Nova Scotia’s New Democratic Party (NDP), which is calling on the provincial government to take immediate action to address rising housing and transportation costs.
Opposition leader Claudia Chender pointed to new data reported by CBC and compiled by Statistics Canada, showing that in 2024, households in Halifax spent approximately 31% or more of their before-tax income on housing and transportation, compared to 30% in Toronto.
“It is now marginally more expensive to live in Halifax than it is to live in Toronto... That is shocking,” Chender told reporters at a news conference Monday.
Chender said the Progressive Conservative government has failed to act on affordability, leaving many full-time workers in Halifax unable to pay for basic necessities like rent, gas, and food.
Chender’s remarks come as rising rent and recovering home prices continue to push housing further out of reach for many Canadians. According to StatCan, the average asking rent for a two-bedroom unit in Toronto reached $2,690 in the first quarter of 2025.
And it’s not just Toronto, home affordability deteriorated in eight of 13 major Canadian cities in May, despite stable mortgage rates, as home prices rebounded.
A recent Ratehub.ca report found that the national average home price climbed to $691,299 in May, up 1.9% from April, though still 1.8% below levels from a year earlier. Home sales also increased month over month for the first time in over six months.
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To address the deepening affordability crisis, Chender urged the provincial government to implement rent control, expand public transit, and invest in more affordable housing. She also called for the appointment of a dedicated housing minister.
“They can start by appointing a minister whose job it is to deal with housing and to make sure that housing is affordable for the Nova Scotians who need it,” she said.
Following Premier Tim Houston’s re-election in November 2024, his government eliminated the standalone housing portfolio, merging it with economic development to form the Department of Growth and Development, now led by Colton LeBlanc.
“The Tories had a housing minister and things didn’t get better. And now they don’t have a housing minister and things are still getting worse,” Chender said. “At the end of the day, government has to take responsibility for the affordability of housing in this province.”
But Catherine Klimek, a spokesperson with Houston's office, said in a statement that the government had increased the supply of market-rate housing and made "massive investments" in affordable and public housing, according to The Canadian Press.
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