Behind Closed Doors

Harper quietly slipped into Alberta yesterday as part of his Western Canada tour. Even in all blue Alberta he remains aloof, paranoid and out of touch with the public.

Harper waves Tory flag in Fort McMurray, Alta., but only behind closed doors

The prime minister was to meet behind closed doors Monday in Fort McMurray, Alta., with the mayor, health region chairman and energy industry representatives. [ 5.11.07 CanadaEast]

And despite being in All Blue Alberta he got an earful. Which is probably why he listened under the cone of silence. And in the end he came, he maybe listened but did he hear? Well we won't know because he doesn't talk to the media.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper took his first tour of northern Alberta's multibillion-dollar oil sands bonanza yesterday, then heard first-hand about all the problems the massive projects are causing.

Harper and his entourage flew over the massive mining excavations by helicopter, then climbed aboard a three-storey-high, heavy hauler earth-moving machine. He then shook hands with Syncrude Canada employees.

Back in Fort McMurray, community leaders met with the Prime Minister in a closed-door invitation-only meeting to tell him about the flip side of developing Canada's energy riches.

"We need housing, we need better roads and we need better medical services," said business owner Francis Jean, who is also the mother of Brian Jean, the Conservative MP for Fort McMurray-Athabasca.

"People are paying exorbitant rents, making it difficult for families to move to here."

Other community leaders were equally blunt.

Melissa Blake, mayor of Wood Buffalo, the municipality that includes Fort McMurray, said it is great to have the Prime Minister visit an area that will provide much of Canada's economic oomph over the next decade.

Noting many of the region's problems fall within Alberta's jurisdiction, Blake said she hopes the federal government will contribute money to help the community build road, water, sewer, health and other infrastructure projects it needs to flourish.

The population of the Fort McMurray area has doubled to 90,000 people since 1999 and continues to grow quickly.

"It is the challenge of having a population that has doubled and is projected to triple within 15 years," Blake said.

"The infrastructure is simply not keeping pace under the regular funding mechanisms. We are looking at the possibility of sharing costs with other levels of government – be it federal or provincial."

Last week, media reported people in the area found notices on their doors warning of impending rent hikes exceeding $1,000 a month.

Harper would not speak to the media about the meeting, his tour of the oil sands or any other issue.

Boom has its stresses, McMurray tells PM

Harper tours oilsands, meets with community and business leaders, but makes no offers of help

Mike Sadava, The Edmonton Journal

Published: 1:35 am

FORT MCMURRAY - Stephen Harper may have been the first prime minister to visit Fort McMurray in more than a decade, but he made no promises to help this over-stressed city deal with its booming economy.

During his half-day tour of the area, Harper flew over the oilsands in a helicopter, toured part of the vast Syncrude site in a three-storey high "heavy hauler," and visited employees at the Syncrude control centre before meeting with oilsands executives and other business and community leaders.

Fort McMurray is one of the mostapidly growing cities in Canada, expected to hit a population of 100,000 within five years.

But the growth has come at a cost: extremely high house prices, rent increases of more than $1,000 in the case of one apartment complex, and a two-lane highway from the south that is clogged with slow-moving, oversized loads of prefabricated parts for the oilsands.

Harper did not talk to the media after the "round-table" meeting, but others

attending the meeting said it produced no specific help for the "energy superpower," as the prime minister has referred to the area.

Wood Buffalo Mayor Melissa Blake said consistent comments from those in the room clearly sent Harper the message that the boom has brought many challenges.

While many jurisdictions across Canada face labour and other growth pressures, "the order of magnitude is different here," Blake said the prime minister was told.

The meeting included a discussion of different levels of government working together, as well as the possibility of so-called P3 partnerships between business and government.

Blake was upbeat despite the lack of specific promises.

"The first step is awareness, and we certainly had that."

Athabasca MP Brian Jean said the provincial royalty review was brought up in the discussion. Harper pointed to last week's tax-cutting, mini-budget fiscal update and noted "that we brought corporations pretty well back to where they were before the royalty review."

"It was great news for corporations and great news for Canadians at every level of paying taxes," Jean said.

Monday marked the first time that Harper has visited Fort McMurray, at least as prime minister, and is the first time a prime minister visited the area since Jean Chretien's trip there in 1996.

Alain Moore, spokesman for Syncrude, said there was a lot of talk about the contributions of the oilsands to Canada's economy during his visit to the com-pany's site.

Many workers came out of their offices to greet Harper when he visited Syncrude's control centre.

"A number of Syncrude employees were thrilled and honoured to have a person of that national stature visiting them," Moore said.

After his visit to the northern Alberta city, Harper was flown to Castlegar, B.C.. where he was to attend an evening meeting with Tory party members.

H/T to Borges Blogue


SEE:

Presto Shills For Big Oil

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Presto Shills For Big Oil

Presto Manning was on CTV Question Period this morning shilling for Big Oil and whining about the Alberta Royalty compromise produced by Eddie Stelmach.

CTV's Question Period: Preston Manning, Fmr. Reform Party leader

Presto was following up on criticisms he made earlier this week in a comment piece he wrote in one of them 'damn eastern newspapers'; the Globe and Mail, aka Canada's National newspaper. Preston Manning: The Stelmach royalty uncertainty principle Which of course is owned by the same folks who own CTV.

Presto has upset folks even on the right like Neil Waugh at the Edmonton Sun. Whose side is Presto on?

Presto engaged in some political prestidigitations on Question Period about how this will hurt Eddie in the polls when the election comes. And as usual with the rose coloured glasses of the Calgary right wing he predicted that it won't benefit the Liberals or NDP or even the would be right wing rump parties, but rather it would be because conservatives will stay home.

Manning added it's becoming increasingly unlikely that Stelmach and the Conservatives will win another election unless the "government demonstrates a capacity it hasn't shown thus far."

"I don't see votes going to the Liberals or the NDP, I think their biggest danger is another 150,000 people staying home who voted Conservative the last time," he said.

Well at least they have homes. It's not just the royalty deal that is driving a stake in the heart of the Tired Old Tories it's stories like this Halloween surprise.

Drastic rent increases at a Fort McMurray complex are renewing calls for rent control.

"The province needs to step in. Every other province has some form of rent control," said Rob Picard, angered by his skyrocketing rent.

On Halloween night, Picard was spooked by an 86% increase to his rent. The three-month notice means the rent on his two-bedroom 700-square-foot apartment in the River Park Glens, also known as the Syncrude Towers, is jumping from $1,425 per month to $2,650.

"I work for Suncor. I make good money, but I can't afford this. The illusion that this is Fort McMurray and everybody can afford this is just wrong," said the heavy equipment operator.

He's not the only one complaining.

Gunner Antos has a two-bedroom apartment in the same building and will see his rent go from $1,500 a month to $2,700. Those prices could even drive highly paid workers away.

"They're crying for workers and they're raping us," said Antos.

"You've got people who have jobs living in tent cities. They have people with jobs living in the bush."

Service Alberta spokesman Eoin Kenny said the government is not looking at rent controls at this time.

The apartment building has about 500 units, although some are individually owned.

"With this type of hit, even though I work for Syncrude, I may be forced to take a room this late in life," said Gerald Morrison, who has lived at the complex for more than 20 years.

"I always thought Fort McMurray was fair and square, but they're gouging now."

The landlords left a note on apartment doors Wednesday afternoon saying the change will be effective Feb. 1.

Mr. Morrison said his three-bedroom apartment is going from $1,800 a month to $2,950 - without utilities - despite a leaky roof, carpenter ants and unpainted walls. Two years ago, his rent went from $1,100 to $1,500, and then to $1,800 last February.

David Campkin said the one-bedroom apartment he and his wife share rose to $2,250 from $1,450. He said the unit's condition is "absolutely appalling" with a carpetless concrete floor and none of the promised security.

The provincial Residential Tenancies Act passed in April requires landlords to give tenants three months' notice before raising rent once a year. River Park Glen appears to have met the conditions.

There is no ceiling on rent increases in Alberta, where a sizzling economy is attracting workers from outside the province and making affordable housing scarce. A government-appointed committee suggested rent controls to Premier Ed Stelmach earlier this year, but he rejected the recommendation.

Lets do some quick math shall we. 500 units X $1500=$750,000. Rolling in the dough while not providing tenants with repairs. Can you say high rise slum lord.

Another whiner from Alberta is Harpers pal the ex-CEO of Encana, Gwyn Morgan
who also published a comment attacking the royalty compromise in that same eastern rag. The irony is that populism was what got Presto elected and made the Reform/Alliance/Conservative party possible. And Gwyn makes the same case that Presto does in attacking Farmer Ed.

Populism tramples principle in Alberta

GWYN MORGAN

From Monday's Globe and Mail
October 29, 2007 at 6:30 AM EST

Experience has taught me that populist politics are seldom principled. It's not that populists don't want to do what's right and best; it's just that if a choice has to be made as to which has priority, what is popular wins.

The second matter of principle Mr. Stelmach's government has violated is reneging on oil sands royalty commitments under which capital has already been invested. Except in the case of Syncrude and Suncor, the money was invested without a contract binding the government to honour the terms.

Nonetheless, investors rightly see this unilateral change as a clear case of doing what is popular rather than what is right. And in terms of doing what is best, the damage to Alberta's reputation certainly illustrates the wrong choice.

Industry is still in shock, but the computer models used to compare before and after investment feasibility are grinding away. Companies with investment opportunities outside Alberta will be looking at them a lot closer. The natural gas drilling and development service sector was already suffering, so expect an even worse downturn. New project decisions in the oil sands will have to factor a much higher government take into a business already replete with risk.

Mr. Stelmach states: "I'm confident we've made the right decisions for today and for Alberta's future."

As for me, I continue to believe that populist politics are seldom principled.

Populism is what kept Ralph in power for years. Of course in Ralph's case that was populism that benefited the oil boys in Calgary. So that was principled.



SEE:

Income Trusts; Predatory Capitalism

Stelmach's Royalty Give Away

Made In Calgary Homeless Plan

The Sky Is Not Falling

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Made In Calgary Homeless Plan

No rent controls. A bungled boondoggle of subsidies to renters. And now a corporate committee to deal with homelessness in Alberta sometime in the next decade.

Alberta's government has announced it's forming the Alberta Secretariat for Action on Homelessness to help end the problem over the next 10 years.

Premier Ed Stelmach says in a release that while that may be an ambitious goal, it's one that the government needs to strive for to help those in need.

The secretariat, which will include representation from across the province, is expected to be working by April.

It will be headed by Yvonne Fritz, the government's associate minister of affordable housing and urban development.

The government says issues such as a budget and membership will be worked out over the next few months.

Last January, a committee that includes some of Canada's biggest corporate leaders formed with the aim to wipe out Calgary's homelessness problem over the next decade.

Calling any announcement on the issue a good one, Calgary Homeless Foundation president and CEO Wayne Stewart said he's hoping Stelmach will focus on long-term sustainability.

Stewart said his group has been working on a 10-year plan to eliminate homelessness in Calgary and expects to release its preliminary findings in January.

This is not a solution to the problem of affordable housing it is just another Tired Old Tory form of the old poor laws updated for the 21st century. Where the old poor laws produced workhouses run by the Church, we now have corporate philanthropists coming up with housing solutions, but no cheap housing while the condo conversions boom and tent cities for the homeless spread across the province.

Premier Ed Stelmach unveiled an initiative Monday to build 11,000 new affordable homes in Alberta over the next five years.

Eleven thousand homes is a drop in the bucket. What we need is the end to condo conversions, rent control and the creation of mass public housing NOW; town houses, row housing and apartments subsidized by the provincial and federal governments.

About 2,600 people in Edmonton and 3,400 in Calgary don't have a place to live, according to the last count of the homeless population in 2006.

Both major cities have seen an increase of at least 20 per cent in their homeless populations since 2004.

Add to that the fact that Syncrude alone is looking to hire 5000 workers to live in Fort McMurray a 11,000 homes across the province is a joke.

Not only is the oil boom in Alberta causing a labour shortage, but Syncrude faces a host of retirements, with an attrition rate of eight to nine per cent, he said.

"We're trying to get up to 5,000 employees," said House, adding the company now employs some 4,600 people.

Exciting as all this might sound, he was finding few takers at the CASTLE event.

"Housing cost is the number one deterrent," said House.

In labour-starved Fort McMurray, he said, "you can work at a Burger King and make $15 an hour.

"But in order to afford the housing, you'd better work a lot of hours," he added. "A person making $15 could not survive alone."

SEE:

This Is Better Than Rent Controls?

Stelmach's Robber Barons

And New York Has Rent Controls

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This Is Better Than Rent Controls?

Instead of accepting the Government appointed Public Panel on Affordable Housing recommendation that the province introduce rent controls, the government instead did what it loves to do; create a subsidization fund. And as usual with the these kind of Tory schemes this of course was so loosy goosey that it was open to abuse. Not by the users but by the bureaucrats in charge.

And while the internal audit by the department found no fraud, which is irrelevant, what they found was business as usual in this Tired Old Tory government.

And note that the average payment made was $827 dollars while provincial average rental rates are over $1000 per month for a one bedroom apartment. Not only a drop in the proverbial bucket, but less than what is needed for one months rent. And for the rest of the eleven months of they year......nothing. And this is better than rent controls, ha, ha!

Nearly three-in-10 claims granted from a fund to help stave off homelessness were improperly approved -- but no fraud has been found, a provincial audit has concluded.

An internal investigation into the $7-million fund -- which is expected to balloon to $21 million by the end of the year -- found more than $60,000 of the nearly $200,000 put under the microscope was handed out without proper checks and balances.

The Government of Alberta, through Municipal Affairs and Housing, introduced
the Homeless and Eviction Prevention Fund (HEPF) in response to the
recommendations of the Alberta Affordable Housing Task Force. Alberta
Employment Immigration and Industry (AEII) began delivering the program on
May 11, 2007. The program is designed to assist Albertans at risk of losing their
homes due to rent increases and to assist those who require assistance in
establishing a residence.

On July 17, 2007 Global News aired a story alleging that the HEPF was being
abused by individuals presenting inadequate and fraudulent documentation for
rent increases, eviction notices, and utility arrears, and that AEII staff were not
taking sufficient steps to verify the authenticity of the claims. On July 18, 2007,
Minister Evans asked the department’s internal auditors to undertake a review of
the administration of the fund to ensure accountability for the program’s
procedures.

2. Program Description
The Homeless and Eviction Prevention Fund (HEPF) is designed to assist
Albertans with limited resources who are at risk of losing their homes due to rent
increases and to assist those who require assistance in establishing a residence.
The authority to determine eligibility and to provide benefits under the HEPF is
provided under the Income Supports, Health and Training Benefits Regulation.Review the administration of the HEP Fund to ensure compliance with
program directives, policies, and procedures regarding client’s eligibility and
entitlements.

During this period, payments from the HEP Fund totalled $4,866,406 for 5,880 clients for an average of $827 per client


Of the 239 files reviewed from all regions of the province, 171 files (72%) were
processed in accordance with program directives, policies, and procedures. The
documentation (eviction notices, tenancy agreements, notices of arrears, clients’
bank statements, etc.) in these files and staff comments entered into LISA were
sufficiently detailed to support the HEP Fund benefits issued.

In the remaining 68 files the following observations were noted:

• There were 51 files, totalling $50,462 where there was incomplete
documentation detailing the client’s situation for the auditor to confirm that the
client qualified for benefits from the HEP Fund.

• There were 14 files where benefits issued from the HEP Fund were incorrectly
determined resulting in overpayments totalling $6,357. Included in this group
was one case where $3,923 (62% of total overpayments) was incorrectly issued
to cover mortgage arrears. This occurred within 10 days of the start of the
program which suggests the worker may have inadvertently applied the
Income Support policy which allows shelter benefits to be applied to mortgage
arrears.

• Three files totalling $5525 were identified by the audit team for supervisor
review and possible referral to the Investigation and Review Branch. It was
noted that two other files ($2524) of the 171 files processed correctly had
already been referred to the Investigation and Review Branch prior to the
commencement of the audit.

See

The Autumn Of Our Discontent

Transparency Alberta Style

Pay 'Em What They Want

And New York Has Rent Controls

Stelmach Blames Eastern Bums

He Can't Manage

Drumheller Bell Weather

Stelmach Tanks

Alberta Deja Vu

Padrone Me Is This Alberta

Income Trusts

Housing


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Hey Ed You Were In Cabinet

Farmer Ed the man who is now Alberta CEO was in cabinet when this happened.

Albertans were shortchanged by as much as $2 billion annually over the last three years because the government failed to act on its own energy department's royalty recommendations, the auditor general has reported.

Oh yeah and he was Minister of Agriculture when this happened.

Province's farm fuel benefits program at centre of costly controversy

The provincial government sat on a report for seven years that outlined massive failures in policing its $100-million-a-year farm fuel benefit program, before similar concerns were raised by Alberta’s auditor general in 2006.

Now it must explain how Albertans can be sure the almost $1-billion spent on the program in that time was used wisely, said Liberal critic Hugh MacDonald.

Stelmach defended over farm fuel flap

"Premier Stelmach was the minister who identified the issue, period," said Sands. "First, Minister Stelmach ordered a renewal of the applications for the program in 1998. Second, Minister Stelmach ordered an internal review of the that very process. That's the document being banded about today - the very one Minister Stelmach ordered."

But Stelmach left the portfolio in May 1999, Sands said, and the internal review wasn't completed until a month later.

That doesn't explain why, in the following eight years that he was in other cabinet roles, Stelmach didn't notice that the most significant complaint against the program - that it had no way of verifying whether participants were eligible - hadn't been fixed, said Liberal critic Hugh MacDonald. It also doesn't explain why three more agriculture ministers after him didn't follow through, either.

In fact, the issue wasn't raised again until a 2003 recommendation from the auditor general that the portion of the program offering a rebate on diesel purchases was a "high risk" due to its low number of audits.

And his Tired Old Tory policies of government fiscal ineptitude have followed him as the unelected Premier. Instead of rent and condo controls the government shoveled out money to renters to pay for rent increases. And that too has turned into another boondoggle.What kind of fiscal conservative would do that? The kind that have been in power way, way, too long.

Nearly three-in-10 claims granted from a fund to help stave off homelessness were improperly approved -- but no fraud has been found, a provincial audit has concluded.

An internal investigation into the $7-million fund -- which is expected to balloon to $21 million by the end of the year -- found more than $60,000 of the nearly $200,000 put under the microscope was handed out without proper checks and balances.

The opposition wants the auditor general to look at Alberta's Homeless and Eviction Prevention Fund.

NDP Leader Brian Mason says an internal audit that isn't worth the paper it's written on. He says that's because the auditors only interviewed the staff administering the program.

Those are the same people whom news reports earlier this year suggested were ordered to hand out program money without proper documentation in the first place.

Nope no fraud just business as usual in Alberta.


And just to show how out of touch Prince Edward is.....

"The real test will come at the next general election," Stelmach stressed because "Alberta does not run on autopilot"

Ha, Ha, Ha, please stop it.


SEE

Socialist Alberta

Alberta KGB

Transparency Alberta Style

Stelmach the Perfect Strom

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Stelmach's Robber Barons

Speculators, the lowest and sleaziest form of capitalist, in Alberta's hot housing market, are now the beneficiaries, not of social embarrassment and ridicule as they once were, but of the protection of the State.

Moral betrayal at Monarch

Shock that low-income housing is sold after being built on subsidy

The Stelmach government needs to close a loophole in its tenancy law that let owners of Red Deer's Monarch Place bypass a mandatory one-year's notice before turning the affordable-housing project into condos, said Red Deer-North's Conservative MLA.

Tenants in Monarch Place believed they'd have 12 months before their homes became condos. But they instantly became condos in July; once the units are sold, tenants have 90 days to clear out.

How, many want to know, can this happen?

"You can convert a rental premise to a condominium without any notice to the tenants, as long as you're not asking the tenant to leave in order to accomplish the condominium conversion," says Eoin Kenny, a spokesman for Service Alberta.

"In this case, they weren't asking the tenant to leave. They were merely selling the suite."

The numbered company that bought Monarch Place -- a subsidiary of Everest Developments Ltd. in Edmonton -- never told residents its plans for the complex. Registered documents show surveyors began devising the condo plan for the firm on March 11, four months before it took possession.

Residents thought they'd get one year's notice before a condo conversion, a requirement the Stelmach government recently imposed. But 1327545 Alberta Ltd. legally avoided giving any notice, through a provision that lets it convert and sell units as long as it doesn't clear out the tenants.

Many residents say they don't know who their landlords are. Haut said he has never spoken with the buyers.

Richard Cotter, the Everest subsidiary's lawyer, said his client was unaware Monarch was an affordable-housing complex until after it made its purchase deposit and condo plans.

In July, the company took possession and sold all units to condo investors. Rent increases and for-sale signs soon arrived.

Of course there is federal and provincial funding for affordable housing, but no controls to stop it from being condo-ized.

Since the Canada-Alberta Affordable Housing Program Agreement 
was signed,more than $98 million has been allocated towards the creation
of 3,683affordable housing units throughout the province. Federal and
provincial contributions to affordable housing projects are enhanced by
contributions from other partners including municipalities, local community
housing authorities, non-profit organizations and private sector companies.

Without regulations to control condo speculators, and rent controls in place there is no such thing as affordable housing for anyone in Alberta.

Bridge to Community: The Affordable Housing Crisis in Alberta, a documentary by Brent Spiess, takes an in-depth look at the housing issues in Calgary and how the boom is leaving some people behind. But while Calgary is the film’s focal point, Spiess hopes that Albertans in general can benefit from the film and connect with the issues presented.

“We think the issues here are pretty much the same as they are in Edmonton or Grande Prairie or Red Deer or Fort McMurray,” Spiess said.

In May 2006, the average price of a resale home in Calgary was $358 214, up 43.6 per cent in one year. Similarly, Edmonton experienced a 22.9 percent increase that same year, as average sale prices hit $242 936. The market has had a tremendous effect on renters, and it was in this context that Spiess began the year-long process of making his documentary.

Like his predecessor, King Ralph, Eddie is kicking the poor and disabled when they are down.

While the citizens suffer at their hands the Stelmach regime dodders on protecting special interests like housing flippers and other real estate speculators.

leading Keynes to make his famous observation (in his General Theory):

Speculators may do no harm as bubbles on a steady stream of enterprise. But the position is serious when enterprise becomes the bubble on a whirlpool of speculation. When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely to be ill-done. And his reference point was the 1920s, when speculation, frenzied though it already was (especially in the USA) was, by comparison with its post-World War II evolution, embryonic.

What's more important than housing for Tories? Why golf courses. That is after all where the business of government gets done.

Alberta's Progressive Conservative government allocated more than $7 million in grants to golf clubs over three years, and almost all the money went to courses in Tory ridings.

More than half of the money was allocated in 2003, the year before the last provincial election, according to public government documents.

See:

Pay 'Em What They Want

And New York Has Rent Controls

Stelmach Blames Eastern Bums

He Can't Manage

Drumheller Bell Weather

Stelmach Tanks

Alberta Deja Vu

Padrone Me Is This Alberta

Income Trusts

Housing


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REIT Spells Rental Rip Off

There are renters in Alberta to be exploited yet through rent gouging.

Alberta's CEO Ed Stelmach refused to bring in rent controls as advocated by his appointed public committee on housing, because it might impact the 'free market'.

His in-action on the rental crisis in Alberta has influenced the market, in favour of the REIT's and against the interests of those he is elected by the worker/consumer/taxpayer/citizen.

GE snaps up Dundee's eastern properties

LORI McLEOD

Globe ad Mail, Print Edition 05/06/07 Page B4

Dundee Real Estate Investment Trust is selling two-thirds of its properties to a division of General Electric Co. for $1.5-billion, amid a wave of consolidation of Canadian real estate trusts and assets.

The trust decided to sell its Eastern Canadian assets in the belief that properties in Western cities such as Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver will continue to perform well. For example, Dundee expects to raise rents in Calgary by about 50 per cent when they expire, compared with 20 per cent for the current portfolio over all.

Dundee is the second largest REIT owning and profiting from apartment and real estate investment, behind Boardwalk. And like other REIT's they are busy transforming exiting apartments into Condo's they can sell off in the Alberta's hot market.

This is the Income Trust business transforming itself once again back into a private capital enterprise.

Income Trusts are a ponzi scheme where upon private capital moves into the public market, profits in barely legal schemes in that market, and then when it is no longer to their advantage they return again to the shadow world of private equity hedge funds.

Just how questionable these schemes are can be told in the Dundee offer which changed in the headlines in a few hours. Prior to the article above an earlier edition of the Globe and Mail carried this headline; GE buys properties from Dundee REIT for $2.4-billion

Which is a lot more than $1.5 Billion apparently finally settled on. Which may explain this;Investors question Dundee's asset sale

PROPERTY REPORT

REIT watch

June 4 close

Weekly change

Y-to-d total return

Dundee

$39.96

4.10%

5.80%

REITS success relies upon their making steady earnings distributions to their shareholders. Those earnings are made off the back of renters.

And it is clear that thanks to Ed Stelmach the Canadian REIT's look at Alberta as the sole base for their business in Canada. Which is scary for working families in Alberta as we have found out this past year.

The changes made by Stelmach in only allowing a rent increase once annually, with no cap on its size means that the REITs look forward to even bigger profits next year when they can charge 50% mark ups on their rent like they did this year.

The smart real estate money is heading West, which is not to say that GE fumbled the ball by snapping up Dundee REIT’s Central and Eastern Canadian investment properties for $2.4-billion, including debt, but rather Dundee’s decision to keep its bricks and mortar located primarily in Alberta.

For that reason, Desjardins Securities analyst Jeff Roberts is recommending Alberta-centric real estate stocks like Melcor Developments Ltd., Mainstreet Equity Corp., Genesis Land Development Corp. and Boardwalk REIT, all “top pick” rated.

For investors who like distributions and dividends, his “top picks” include Boardwalk REIT, with a 34 per cent total 12-month expected return; Calloway REIT, offering a 33 per cent total return; and First Capital Realty Inc., 26 per cent.

This is the so called free market, which you can regulate, the Alberta Government as usual just doesn't want to be bothered because after all they are partners with business. And business calls the shots in their partnership.

So no one should be surprised when Dundee REIT looks forward to raising rents 50% next year, thats the regulation the Ed Stelmach created for them.

See:

Income Trusts

Housing




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Alberta, Calgary, Edmonton, Dundee REIT, housing, rental, condominium, apartment, Boardwalk Reality, Income Trusts, rent controls, homelessness, housing-costs, housing-boom, Alberta, ED Stelmach,
Premier, Alberta Cabinet,PC, Party of Calgary, politics, leadership, Conservatives

And New York Has Rent Controls

Unlike Alberta, but once again what is good for the big Apple appears to be good for Alberta. This is what globalization looks like, the neo-con agenda writ across the globe. The current housing crisis in Alberta mirrors that of New York City.

Developmentalism in the Big Apple

Cost of living has skyrocketed in New York, but under fatcats Giuliani and Bloomberg, the working man’s wage has not

By Steven Wishnia

Rent in New York City costs 10 times more today than it did 30 years ago. Working-class wages haven't followed suit.

From Welfare State to Real Estate: Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present
By Kim Moody
New Press · $26.95

Noxious New York: The Racial Politics of Urban Health and Environmental Justice (Urban and Industrial Environments)
By Julie Sze
The MIT Press · $24.00

Thirty years ago, you could easily find a one-bedroom apartment in a middle-class neighborhood in New York City for $150 a month. Today, it would cost more than $1,500—more than what Yankees slugger Reggie Jackson, then baseball’s highest-paid player, paid in 1977. His Fifth Avenue apartment with a balcony overlooking Central Park cost $1,466 a month. And the minimum wage hasn’t gone up to $27.82 an hour.

How we got to this point is the subject of Kim Moody’s From Welfare State to Real Estate: Regime Change in New York City, 1974 to the Present (The New Press). Moody analyzes how New York’s business elite exploited the ’70s fiscal crisis to destroy the city’s “social-democratic polity” and impose the neoliberal agenda that has dictated “restraint on social spending, privatization, deregulation, and most importantly, the reassertion of class power by the nation’s capitalist class.”

New York City Housing Bubble - 'The BIG Picture'

See;

Housing

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Alberta, Calgary, Edmonton, New York City, housing, rental, condominium, apartment, rent controls, Big Apple, rent controls, homelessness,

Tax Subsidies vs Rent Control

Ok explain this one to me. The Stelmach government refuses to adopt Rent Controls since that would of course be socialism and interference in the 'free market'.

On the other hand giving developers cash bribes aka tax breaks, socialism for the rich, is of course not interfering in the free market.

Premier Ed Stelmach is refusing to put rental caps to a free vote in the legislature.

He said his government is studying incentives for developers, including tax breaks

Developers like Boardwalk REIT which raked in massive profits last year and in the first quarter this year because of Alberta's overheated housing market.

And who are rubbing their hands with glee at the profits they will continue making without having to build a single apartment building.


See:

Just Say No

No New Apartments in Alberta

Inflation In Alberta

Housing


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Calgary, Edmonton, Fort McMurray, housing, rental, condominium, apartment, Boardwalk Reality, Income Trusts, rent controls, homelessness, Canada, StatsCan, renters, housing, rent-controls, inflation, rent, housing-costs, housing-boom, Alberta, ED Stelmach,
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