In September 2022, the federal government announced it was addressing the issue by granting a $500 tax-free payment to low-income renters, with applications opening in December. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said the benefit could be renewed if the cost of living challenge remains.

Additionally, the Canada Mortgage Housing Corporation found in its Jan. rental market report that rent growth for a two-bedroom apartment between 2021 and 2022 was 5.6 per cent. The corporation says this is a new annual high, well above the average rent growth recorded between 1990 and 2022.

Shelter, which includes rented accommodation and owned accommodation, is one of the major components of the Consumer Price Index.

Below are two visualizations. One compares consumer price index (rental accommodations) by province, and the second by major cities. In both, the national average is coloured black, allowing for easy comparison.

(Clicking on a province/city in either map will show the CPI (rented accommodation) for that jurisdiction. Click outside the map to return to the original view.)

Comparing the provinces, Statistics Canada’s data for December 2022 indicates that Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba have the highest prices for rental accommodations. While not a one-to-one comparison, as different datasets are used, this seems to confirm the analysis by Urbanation Inc. in Rentals.ca’s January 2022 rent report that Atlantic Canada is seeing some of the highest rental rate increases.

When looking at cities, the data paints a slightly different picture, with Charlottetown, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Saskatoon, and Regina leading the pack in terms of rent growth.