Is your Alberta MLA a landlord?
Twenty MLAs — 13 UCP and 7 NDP — earn income from rental properties, representing almost a quarter of the Legislative Assembly.
In September, The Orchard had a look at which Alberta MLAs had side hustles as landlords. At the time, financial disclosures were available for just 75 out of 87 MLAs in the Legislative Assembly of Alberta.
That’s because those who were first elected in the May 2023 election didn’t need to file their disclosures until the end of the year.
With NDP MLA Janis Irwin’s private member’s bill to cap rent increases at 2% for two years, followed by two years of rent increases tied to inflation, set for debate in the coming weeks, and the disclosures for all MLAs available, it’s a good time to revisit which legislators are profiting off a lack of housing affordability in Alberta.
Twenty MLAs, representing 24% of the Legislature, have disclosed income earned from rental properties, either directly or through their spouse — a single percentage point decrease from the figures available last year.
The governing UCP, with 13 members of its 48-person caucus earning income from rental properties, has 27% landlord representation in caucus, compared to seven members of the NDP’s 38-member caucus, representing 18%.
There is one independent MLA, Jennifer Johnson, who doesn’t own rental property.
We don’t know how much money each member earns from their rental properties, because MLAs are only required to disclose whether they own rental properties.
Some have been so kind as to provide a number of properties and which municipalities they’re located in, but this doesn’t appear to be a requirement.
Someone like UCP MLA Tany Yao, who owns property in Edmonton, Calgary and Fort McMurray, likely earns more rental income than someone who owns a sole property where they reside.
But it’s hard to defend earning any rental income at all when you’re an elected official with the power to impact housing policy in a province whose largest city, Calgary, saw the price of rent increase by 14% from 2022 to 2023.
This is especially true if you’re Nathan Neudorf, the minister of affordability and utilities.
The 13 UCP MLAs who moonlight as landlords are (* indicates their spouse earns income from rentals):
Minister of Justice Mickey Amery (Calgary-Cross)*
Eric Bouchard (Calgary-Lougheed)
Scott Cyr (Bonneville-Cold Lake-St. Paul)
Nolan Dyck (Grande Prairie)
Minister of Infrastructure Peter Guthrie (Airdrie-Cochrane)
Minister of Health Adriana LaGrange (Red Deer-North)*
Minister of Municipal Affairs Ric McIver (Calgary-Hays)*
Minister of Affordability and Utilities Nathan Neudorf (Lethbridge-East)
Chelsae Petrovic (Livingstone-Macleod)
Pradeep (Peter) Singh (Calgary-East)
Jason Stephan (Red Deer-South)*
Minister of Children and Family Services Searle Turton (Spruce Grove-Stony Plain)
Tany Yao (Fort McMurray-Wood Buffalo)
And the seven NDP MLAs:
Transportation and economic corridors critic Lorne Dach (Edmonton-McClung)
Infrastructure critic Jasvir Deol (Edmonton-Meadows)
Technology and innovation critic Court Ellingson (Calgary-Foothills)
Jobs, economy and trade critic Nathan Ip (Edmonton-South West)
Leader Rachel Notley (Edmonton-Strathcona)*
Seniors issues, continuing care and homecare critic Lori Sigurdson (Edmonton-Riverview)
Deputy whip, and agriculture, forestry and rural economic development critic Heather Sweet (Edmonton-Manning)
While NDP leadership candidate Sarah Hoffman (Edmonton-Glenora) owns a rental property, she doesn’t earn any income from it.
Minister of Advanced Education Rajan Sawhney’s (Calgary-North West) husband owns a rental property in Rockyview County, but doesn’t make money from it.
Compared to last time I wrote this list, the NDP caucus has increased by a landlord — rookie MLA Nathan Ip — while the UCP caucus has remained the same.
Brian Jean, the minister of energy and critical minerals, no longer earns rental income on paper, as he did previously. His company, City Centre Group Inc., however, owns short-term rentals in Edmonton, Canmore, Vancouver Island and Oahu, Hawaii. Jean’s disclosure notes that he earns income from City Centre Group.
Minister of Public Safety Mike Ellis appears to have exited the rental business.
The UCP’s Scott Cyr, who previously served as an MLA from 2015 to 2019, and newbie Chelsae Petrovic are new to the landlord list.
The NDP caucus supports Irwin’s temporary rent cap legislation, which is easy for them to do, since the governing UCP has made clear it has no intention of letting the bill become law.
The fact that 18% of the NDP caucus are landlords might explain why Irwin has opted for a short-term bandaid solution while echoing the neoliberal nostrum that a long-term solution to the housing affordability crisis is simply to create more supply.
But it might be especially worth remembering the 27% of members on the UCP side of the ledger who are landlords when they argue against a bill that will provide temporary reprieve to the very renters they’re able to extract however much profit they want from.
H/t to The Maple for the inspiration.
This piece has been updated to reflect Brian Jean’s ownership of short-term rentals through a company.