NDP leader Jim Dinn has doubled down on his promise to introduce rent controls, with a provincial election call in the offing any day now.

Dinn made the campaign promise in the apartment of Dale Baggs, a tenant in an apartment building on Keane Place in St. John’s.

Dinn says there are rent controls in several other provinces, where annual increases are capped between 1.1 and 5 per cent – depending on the jurisdiction.

He suggests looking at the experiences of those provinces to figure out how it could work here.

He says the question is what is a reasonable profit for landlords to make. Dinn says that could be indexed to the cost of living or inflation. For rent increases to account for things like renovations, Dinn says landlords would have to justify their decisions.

Dale Baggs, a 62-year-old man on a fixed income, has been living in his apartment for 10 years. When he first moved in his rent was $800, and by next February he says his rent will be over $1,000 per month.

Baggs says his experience with rent increases has been “off the charts.

He says it can have a “dramatic effect,” especially for people that are worse off than him, or people who don’t know how to manage their money. Baggs notes that he will soon be getting an $11.50 increase in government assistance.

“My phrase to that is ‘great—brand name Kraft Dinner this week.'”