The most recent survey from Modalis Public Opinion by Modus Research finds that a majority of Canadians across all income levels support stronger rent control to help curtail rising prices.
Key findings in this release:
- Most Canadians support stronger rent control
- The number of Canadians that want governments to invest in public housing has increased
- Over half of Canada’s highest earners also think government should invest in public housing
A strong majority of Canadians support stronger rent control.
Over two-thirds of Canadians agree that rent control needs to be strengthened to help curtail the rise in rents. This was true across the provinces. Unsurprisingly, renters show stronger support for rent control (82%), but even homeowners support the policy proposal at nearly 60%.
The level of support for senior levels of government investing in public housing has increased.
Over 70% of Canadians support federal and provincial governments investing in publicly-owned and operated housing, the way they used to before the 1990s.
Support for public housing is strong across income groups.
While it is unsurprising that low-earning Canadians support governments investing in public housing, our study finds that a majority of the highest-earning Canadians – those who make over $150,000 per year – also support provincial and federal governments investing in publicly owned and operated housing.
The support for public housing is also fairly unanimous across Canada’s provinces and age groups.
Discussion
Canadians are concerned about rising rents and believe that governments should impose stronger rent control in order to mitigate the issue. This trend is surprisingly consistent across income levels and regions. Contrary to trends in some jurisdictions – like Ontario, where the Ford government has rolled back rent control – there is a fairly strong desire to see rent control strengthened.
Additionally, it is clear that Canadians think there may be another solution to the problem of increasing rents: for senior levels of government to invest in publicly owned and operated housing, as was the case prior to the 1990s. This is another case of Canadians feeling that their governments are not doing enough to help their living situation in a time of growing economic precarity.
Methodology
The survey was conducted from August 1 to 8 using the Modalis Public Opinion panel – 100% recruited using random probability telephone sampling. Because the panel is built entirely using random probability sampling, it is valid to cite the margin of error for this survey. The survey is based on a representative sample of 1,618 Canadian adults and has a margin of error of +/- 2.4% points, 95 times out of 100. The survey data is weighted by age, gender, and region according to the latest Statistics Canada census.
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