First, the federal government must protect 20,000 at-risk households living in housing co-ops. The government has already pledged to do this on a number of occasions dating back to before the last election. It is now time for concrete measures that will protect long-term affordability for those who need it the most.
It is imperative that these new measures feature the same breadth and depth of support, ensuring that the same number of households are supported moving forward, and that those households are offered the same level of financial support. Low-income households need certainty now and cannot wait until next year to get an update on the status of this vital program.
Second, co-ops across Canada are ready to do more with their assets. In only a few years, co-ops have leveraged over $100 million for capital renewal, fuelling their local economies and creating jobs. One key tool that co-ops have utilized to kick-start their asset regeneration has been to prepay their CMHC-held mortgages. These mortgages were signed at interest rates of between 8% and 11%. These rates made sense in the 1970s, but today they are an impediment to capital renewal and job creation.
We are calling on the government to accelerate and improve the options for co-ops to prepay their high-interest CMHC-held mortgages. This simple fix would enable co-ops to launch hundreds of millions of dollars of affordable housing regeneration, protecting their affordable housing assets for decades to come.