VANCOUVER— John Rustad has said he is against rent caps that protect renters from unfair increases. If John Rustad and the BC Conservatives form the next government, renters could end up paying hundreds of dollars more each month if rent caps are removed.
In September, CBC reported that John Rustad told a private meeting: "I'm not a fan of rental control. It's a way to ghetto-ize rental stock.”
Link to full audio here.
Rustad, along with other BC Conservative candidates Honveer Randhawa, Melissa De Genova, Bryan Breguet, and Paul Ratchford have all voiced opposition to rent caps.

Rustad has repeatedly criticized rent caps and signaled his interest in removing them entirely at some point in the future.

But even if he started by just letting landlords to hike rents by an extra 2% over inflation - like when he was at the BC Liberal Cabinet table, it would cost people thousands more each year. After four years of a Rustad government, monthly rent for an average apartment in Vancouver could go up by an additional $225 - an increase of $2700 annually.

But he wouldn’t stop there. Rustad and his candidates have repeatedly said that their end goal is to get rid of rent caps entirely - which would let rents skyrocket and leave renters at risk of losing their homes.

“These rent hikes would hit families hard, forcing many to choose between paying rent and covering other basic expenses,” said BC NDP candidate Spencer Chandra-Herbert. “John Rustad will give corporate landlords the green light to drastically increase rents and potentially push them out of their homes. That’s a risk we can’t afford.”
Here’s what Rustad his candidates have said about rent caps:
Rustad:

"I'm not a fan of rental control. It's a way to ghetto-ize rental stock. You end up with the degradation of sites because revenue drops compared to costs. And it puts landlords in a difficult position to update their properties." (Read by Gloria Macarenko on CBC, September 19 2024)

“That's when we’re going to start looking at removing rent control. Because what rent control will do over the long term is, it will stop reinvestment in properties. It's the ghettoization of rentals, because the owners, if their costs are going up faster than the rents going up, they're squeezed in terms of money.” (Coast Reporter, September 12 2024)

“There's significant steps that we need to take as a government to encourage more rental stock being built. But once we can build out additional rental stock, which will be a big focus, obviously, and you get to maybe 2, 3% or even higher vacancy rate, then you can deal with rent control because the market will be able to adjust accordingly.” (Rustad at Richmond Event, September 15 2024)

Honveer Randhawa (Surrey-Guildford):
Criticized the provincial government for “implementing rent caps at 2% and not allowing homeowners to increase their rent as per the rule, which was inflation + 2%. So it was supposed to be 9%.” (Facebook, October 4 2022)
Melissa De Genova (Vancouver-Yaletown):

“When you handcuff homeowners with rent controls, it can be really difficult. So that's definitely something that we have committed to looking at.” (Housing meeting, October 3, 2024)

“Rent controlisn't the way that we necessarily - that's not the path forward for the Conservative Party in BC. It's about making sure that we're doing whatever we can to incentivize and encourage homeowners to rent their homes. And right now, we're not seeing that necessarily with the rental cap and the small increases that aren't in line with with the costs that we see homeowners having to bear annually.” (Housing meeting, October 3, 2024)

Bryan Breguet (Vancouver-Langara):

“Anybody arguing for rent control isn't serious, especially if it's been tenancies. This is pure insanity” (Twitter, Feb 6 2024)

Paul Ratchford (Vancouver-Point Grey):

“No surprise, the NDP are the rent control party. It’s highly destructive housing policy but popular politically. We will see major housing shortages in the future at least in part as a result of this. Maybe they will try fixing the price of other goods like food next.” (Twitter, Nov 9 2020)

“Rent controls are a cancer.”(Twitter, Jan 24 2023)

“Remove all rent controls! Let markets, not the govt, decide the price of food, housing, and other essentials. Like it or not, all other roads lead to shortages. Socialist’s create shortages and use the resulting higher prices to push more price controls - break the cycle.” (Twitter, June 22 2024)