When housing needs are great, issues are bound to arise

Avariety of landlord-tenant disputes have played out on social media and in the print media in recent months. The rights of landlords and the rights of tenants have been central in many of the disputes, but, perhaps, the most central of all has been the housing shortage that exists across the province.

There is a documented need for more rental units, especially affordable housing units.

And that’s a scary situation. It is when there is a demand for a product or service that the provider of the product or service stands to make more money. You will see that with lobsters, potatoes, oil and many other products and services. Temporary accommodations such as hotels and motels, do it, too. Room nights are generally more expensive during peak periods, such as during the summer or when there is a major concert or sporting event in town.

Those type of pricing changes, however, are not supposed to happen with housing units. The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission monitors and controls rental rates and increases. IRAC’s presence helps protect tenants from suddenly encountering large rate increases that they cannot afford, and it should also shield them from the worry of such hikes. Price increases would be particularly problematic when available units are scarce because tenents could find themselves out in the cold with no other place to go.

But, really, there is no need for landlords to jack up the rates when accommodations are scarce. It is then that they make money, because all of their apartments should be full.

The obvious solution for landlords who want to increase their income is to build more units and, thus, provide tenants with more housing options.

In the meantime, though, tenants have to be particularly mindful of the housing crunch as landlords are apt to have very little patience for tenants who don’t abide by the rules when they are holding a waiting list of people looking to move in.

Good tenant-landlord relations is a narrow two-way street. One must be mindful and respectful of the other.

The business of cannabis

The mayor of O’Leary has an interesting take on the delayed opening of the cannabis store in his town. Mayor Eric Gavin suggests businesses in his town are missing out on potential business. If the store were already open, he reasons, some of the people who would be making special trips to his town to pick up their product, would buy their groceries or fuel up their vehicles while in O’Leary.

The other three corporate stores in the province opened as scheduled on Oct. 17, but there have been a series of delays in completing the new store the Town of O’Leary is putting up to house the West Prince corporate store.

Corporate cannabis stores are now part of the Canadian landscape.

With that being the new reality, Gavin is not off the mark. There is money to be made in legal cannabis sales, and some of that money is in the opportunities it creates for other businesses.