Rent is rising in Jasper, and with it, tenants’ anxiety about being able to afford to live here.

Last week, residents in the 36 units of the “Walk Ups” (1004 Patricia Street apartments) were sent notice that starting May 1, 2025, their rents were going up—from $1,500 to $2,000, in the case of one couple that rents a two-bedroom apartment there.

That equates to a 33 percent hike, in a rental market which in July lost 800 residential units. In total, the Jasper Wildfire destroyed more than 350 structures and left more than 2,000 residents in need of housing.

“We have nowhere else to go,” said “Jeremy,” a Jasper renter facing steep rent hikes whose identity The Jasper Local agreed to protect.

In Alberta, landlords are only permitted to increase rent once per year, from the start of the tenancy or the last rent increase, whichever is later. They are required to give three months notice for monthly tenancy, 12 weeks for weekly tenancy or 90 days for any other periodic tenancy.

Other than those limits, however, there are no restrictions on skyrocketing rents in this province. 

Janis Irwin, the Alberta NDP’s shadow minister for housing, last year introduced the Housing Security Act, a private member’s bill proposing a temporary cap on rent increases at two per cent for two years, followed by an additional two years in which rent hikes would be capped at the rate of inflation.

After being introduced, Irwin’s bill was swiftly defeated by the ruling United Conservative Party. 

Irwin told The Jasper Local had the legislation been implemented, renters “wouldn’t be in this place today.”

“Because the UCP refused to take action, refused to do anything to address skyrocketing rents across Alberta, we’re in this situation,” Irwin said. “These were reasonable measures to address what we’re seeing in major centres but also smaller communities already struggling with housing and affordability.”

Irwin said rent caps could have been one piece to keeping people in their houses while the government focuses on building more homes.

That topic is currently a sore spot in Jasper, as residents who lost their homes in the July 2024 wildfire are still waiting for promised interim housing to arrive. The province says they can’t make good on their $112 million commitment until Parks Canada expands the townsite. Local planners, meanwhile, have said the province’s plan for permanent, low-density housing is inadequate for displaced residents and would also critically limit the town’s ability to meet future housing needs.

As it stands, Parks Canada has said they have units procured—work camp-style, temporary housing—to be placed on four interim housing parcels serviced for such a purpose. But they can’t get here fast enough.

What the housing shortage means for all Jasperites is a tighter squeeze on what’s available. As Irwin has seen in Alberta’s cities, when that happens, rents climb higher and higher. 

“We’ve seen many examples of landlords taking advantage of the market,” she said.

In Jasper, desperation is palpable. New pleas for housing appear on local Facebook pages every day, with some of those appeals declaring a willingness to pay more than double the market rate of a two-bedroom apartment in this community ($1,834 according to 2023 figures).

One resident who lost her home in the fire, Jasper Municipal Councillor Kathleen Waxer, recently turned down an opportunity to rent a housing unit because she believes paying inflated prices will drive the market higher still. 

“Ethically, I can’t pay that much,” Waxer said. “It sets the bar too high for everybody else.”

Alberta’s Minister of Seniors, Community and Social Services Jason Nixon has been opposed to any form of governmental interference in the housing market, even though his government has re-introduced a cap on car insurance rates and capped electricity rates to protect consumers from a volatile pricing landscape. 

“Knee-jerk policies like rent control would have a devastating impact on housing construction and our entire economy,” Nixon wrote in an Edmonton Journal op-ed 13 months ago. 

Irwin said that’s a terrible argument. 

“They say ‘we don’t want socialist intervening’ in the economy, but conservatives intervene in the economy all the time,” she said. “They’re willing to recognize the need for market intervention in one area, they can surely recognize the need in another area.” 

Adjacent to the 36-unit Walk Ups, rental housing in Jasper is being built. Two three storey, 18-unit apartment complexes, with a mix of one and two-bedroom units, have been built and are occupied. A third (16-unit) complex is steadily moving toward completion. But whether or not Jasperites will be able to afford them is a different story.

“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” Jeremy said.  

Local real estate broker Cam Jenkins has said rent caps aren’t the answer. He told The Jasper Fitzhugh last year that a rent cap of two per cent wouldn’t allow landlords to cover a 38 per cent increase for insurance or a 58 per cent increase for gas, for example. But when he heard about the 33 per cent raise imposed on Jasper Multi-Family LP tenants, he was aghast.

“That is one of the few times I’ve actually been left speechless,” he said.

Asked if he thinks the rent increases will squeeze people out of Jasper, he left no doubt.

“Absolutely this will push people out. How is retiree on a pension going to find another $500 each month?” he asked.

Owners of the Walk Ups—Jasper Multi-Family LP, whose shareholders include developers Chris Ritter, Three Hills, Alberta-based construction CEO, Billy Coles, and Hinton’s Paul Kvill— did not return The Jasper Local’s requests for comment. 

Neither did the Alberta government. 

Bob Covey // bob@thejasperlocal.com