Human Resources committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I'll say right away that CHF Canada is not a poverty specialist organization, although I think we can agree that there are multiple causes of poverty in Canada. We set some of those out in the brief we're presenting here today. I'm really here

Human Resources committee  Thank you for the reference to Ms. Bidgood. I'm sure she'll be very pleased to see her name in the record. If you look back over the history of government involvement in affordable housing in Canada—and this goes way back to the post-war period, back when there were significantl

Human Resources committee  Can I add something to that, Mr. Chairman? Yes, absolutely, there's a jurisdictional issue here, but there's something called the federal spending power as well, and you're using that. You're using the federal spending power in many areas. Health is big, as is education and, of

Human Resources committee  I'm very glad to hear you say such nice things about cooperative housing, and of course I agree with you. I think it's worth noting that cooperative housing programs began in Canada in the early seventies as a solution to the construction of ghettos that you described. Public hou

Human Resources committee  They're cost-effective, they spread the load, and they develop solid corporate citizens. On your other points--I'll just answer very briefly, because Geoff probably has something to say--I completely agree that while I think we do need more permanent affordable housing here, in

Human Resources committee  There are two kinds of co-ops. There are co-ops where there are dividends and profits earned and returned to the members, and co-ops where there are not. Housing co-ops in Canada are not-for-profit co-ops. So although the members collectively own and are responsible for the asset

Human Resources committee  The cooperative corporation owns it, and they make up the cooperative corporation. I agree that there seems to be a bit of a.... You talked about a cryptic answer: I'm giving you one.

Human Resources committee  Yes.

Human Resources committee  That has to do with the funding formulas that are provided. In the largest co-op program, the section 95 program, which delivered 40,000 units, its subsidy declines over time as interest rates have declined.

Human Resources committee  The idea is that the reserve, which you referred to earlier on, will take care of that. However, I will say that in many cases those reserves have not been enough, because the standard of construction was very modest to begin with and significant reinvestment will actually be nee

Human Resources committee  I think you have to realize what that means. What you're looking at is that people who own houses in this country are more affluent and therefore are less likely to be in core need. It's not because they own housing that they're not in core need, but they can afford housing and t

Human Resources committee  Yes. We're not privy to any of the information, but as I understand it, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation is involved in a process with their counterparts at other levels of government to look at what those needs are. The amount of the reserves that have been set aside is v

Finance committee  Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. You have our brief. It has the distinction, I think, of being a brief that does not propose any increase in program spending. I think it's a proposal for the times. We are proposing three things. I'm going to outline two of them and then dwel

Finance committee  To answer your first question first, the program's been hugely successful. It's just been vastly oversubscribed, which is one of the reasons why we are coming back again with this idea for a low-cost loan program. The federal government's commitment to co-op housing over the ye

Finance committee  Absolutely, yes. It's the largest infusion of new capital we've seen, and it's much needed. There's no question about it that the result is going to be a reinvestment in the physical assets of affordable housing providers, which will stand Canada in good stead over the next gener