With opposition parties marching angry renters towards the Alberta Legislature demanding government action, the issue of rising rents is not likely to go away soon.

Unfortunately, as we've seen from governments in the past, taking the wrong -- however well-intentioned -- "action" can cause more problems than it solves.

The reasons rents are going up are two-fold. For one, costs are rising. Building owners are faced with property tax hikes, rising energy costs, and increasing maintenance bills. Second, vacancy rates are virtually zero, while demand continues to rise.

The Liberal and NDP opposition parties have both endorsed rent controls as the solution.

Implementing rent controls would be yet another example of good-intentions gone awry.

In general, rent controls don't work. They drive down the incentive for the private sector to build rental accommodations, making an already tight supply of accommodations even tighter.

If a developer cannot re-coup the cost of building a new rental building by charging the appropriate rent, they will, not surprisingly, opt for more feasible (and profitable) projects.

Even temporary rent controls on existing rental accommodations as the Liberals and NDP have suggested aren't much better. Both parties have endorsed the idea of limiting rent increases to once per year and limiting that increase to the inflation rate growth plus two per cent.

Alberta's current 12-month average inflation is 4.4 per cent. Under the Liberal/NDP plan, building owners would be restricted to a 6.4 per cent increase in rent for this next year. With the City of Edmonton looking at a 10 per cent increase in property taxes next year, and with the City of Calgary implementing a 10 per cent increase in local property taxes last year, under these temporary rent controls, building owners wouldn't even be able to pass on the taxes the local governments are sticking to them!

Plus, with labour and building supply costs rising, any needed repairs to the rental buildings would likely be ignored or deferred by the building owner to avoid incurring any costs they would not be able to pass along. If (and likely when) the temporary rent controls were extended, rental buildings would remain in dis-repair, driving down property values and leaving renters living in slum-like accommodations.

So, if rent controls are not the answer, what is

There is no silver-bullet. No one move will immediately increase the supply of affordable rental units while driving down costs and allowing building owners to make a profit.

But the government could take action to help some renters directly by eliminating the Alberta health care premium.

The health care premium is a $528 per year tax on individuals earning $20,970 or more, and $1,056 on families earning $33,240 or more ($39,250 with children).

To an individual earning $21,000 a year the health care premium eats up about 2.8 per cent of their after-tax income. To an individual earning $100,000 it's about 0.7 per cent of their after-tax income.

The health care premium is a regressive tax, punishing those individuals and families of low-to-middle income the most - the same people who are likely to be renters struggling with increasing rents.

Eliminating the health care premium is also a way of getting money into the hands of many renters without having to spend unnecessary tax-dollars setting-up a new subsidy program. In fact, it would also free-up the $12 million currently spent to track down and bill Albertans for their health care premiums for better uses (like assisting seniors and persons with disabilities pay their increasing rents).

Granted, cutting the health care premium will not help all renters - but as previously mentioned, there is no silver-bullet. But it is one way the government could provide help to a great number of those people who sorely need it.