On any given day in a small town, restaurants should be busy. Orders coming in. People being served. The steady rhythm of a place that’s part of the community.

Instead, more and more locations are running below capacity; not because customers aren’t there, but because there aren’t enough staff.

This is the reality in many rural and tourism communities across Canada.

Recently, Ottawa took a small but important step to begin to address it.

In the wake of U.S. and Israeli attacks on Iran, oil and gas prices have surged, triggering what’s widely expected to be the worst energy crisis on record. Amid ongoing affordability challenges, governments are reaching for policy tools to soften the blow for consumers.

Why are landlords calling on tenants to oppose stronger rent control?

When the provincial government introduced the “largest expansion of rent control in decades,” landlord pushback was predictable. While Manitoba’s Professional Property Managers Association typically keeps its policy advocacy fairly quiet, they have made their position known through local media and paid social media ads urging tenants to oppose the expansion of rent control.

Real estate appraiser Carson Horsburgh, having knowledge of landlords’ consultations with the province, warned in the Free Press of “sweeping regulatory changes,” (Bad policy: the fallout from rent changes, Think Tank, March 24) but landlord pushback has primarily centred on a specific proposed amendment to the residential rent regulation. The proposal is to cut the portion of capital expenses landlords can claim toward rent increases by 50 per cent, which would essentially cut renovation-related rent increases in half.

Many tenants will surely welcome this relief, especially after a PPMA spokesperson publicly warned higher rent increases were coming after the province ended the education property tax rebate last year.