Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thanks to the committee. In 2005, after three years of looking into the feasibility of building seniors housing, a meeting was called. One hundred people showed up. At the end of the meeting, 50 people signed up, and Kootenay Columbia Seniors Housing Cooperative was formed. A 4

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  First off, I think they need to do better research than we possibly did. They need to have all the facts before them on what is required in regard to getting disclosure statements and financing. It seems like you run into a roadblock, and when you overcome that roadblock you ru

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That's a hard question for me to answer, because I've only been involved in this for two years. It's been in the process for ten years. Our community has a strong Russian influence. They were very involved in community efforts and lived in communes at the turn of the century, w

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There are 43.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That's strictly cooperative housing.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Personally, I didn't know he was in existence.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  One issue we have is the reluctance of CMHC to guarantee strata title. Ours is all strata and the cooperative is a strata. The Château Grandview, which will be supportive living, will be strata too, and CMHC won't guarantee those types of things, so it makes it difficult to get e

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There's definitely a need. In the supportive living part of it, we have 200 people on the waiting list in our area for the homes that are established already. They're all for rent; there's no ownership. Ours is all ownership.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No, it hasn't started yet. We sort of put on a deadline of the end of August. It will move ahead. I don't doubt that for a moment. Whether it's done in the way we want to do it, or whether it's given to a developer who is going to make a profit on things, which might happen, it w

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Our dream was co-op housing. After the Château is built, and when we can no longer live in our houses, we will have the right, because our co-op members are in a pecking order—first signed, first opportunity—to go into the supportive living unit. The final stage of it is 16 pod

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  It's 40 acres.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That's correct. We subdivided it right from the start. In the co-op part, where we have our individual housing, nobody owns anything except the members who live there. If there are any mortgages, they are the members' individual mortgages, because they own their houses. And it's

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No, the members got together, and the people who live there bought the land. The co-op lent us money. The mortgages they hold are on separate titles so that they don't affect the residents who live there.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We're trying to get the Château Grandview off the ground. The first phase has 62 units of supportive living. We have seven people who have signed on the dotted line, and so far, to date, they are willing to finance their individual units the same way we financed our individual ho