Finance committee  Thank you to the committee for the invitation to be here today. I represent the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. We represent over 250,000 Canadians living in housing co-operatives from coast to coast to coast, in every province and in every territory. I'm joined here

Finance committee  I will begin with the first question, which is much easier than the second question. We generally support a reinvestment in community housing. At one point federal funding for community housing exceeded $2 billion per year. That's going down as a result of the end of operating

Finance committee  In this particular budget there are two asks that have financial requests and it's $350 million, focused on the creation of new co-op housing supply and the acquisition of federal surplus land. The other programs that are focused on rental assistance are already budgeted in the n

Finance committee  The short answer would be that we have a really good national housing strategy, but why only set out to solve part of the problem? The targets that have been set do not address all of the core housing needs in Canada. The national housing strategy could be enhanced by augmenting

Finance committee  Generally, yes. The renewal of what were called operating agreements is under way. It's being replaced with rental assistance to low-income households.

Finance committee  Yes. That's under way. We're really looking forward to the launch of the federal community housing initiative on April 1. That will secure affordability for 55,000 households in community housing across the country. In terms of new funds to start new co-ops, it's a bit of a yes

Finance committee  The information on that is scattered. Lands, as they become available, are posted on CMHC's website on its own program page, so there is no comprehensive view, at least that I know of, that has been made public.

Finance committee  Do you mean the eligibility criteria for current programs within the national housing strategy?

Finance committee  Certainly, if you want to create a greater depth of affordability, one thing that would be beneficial, if you were looking at making modifications to the co-investment fund, would be to look at the ratio of grants to loans. The larger the grant contribution in the development pro

Human Resources committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair, and thank you for the invitation to present to the committee today. My name is Tim Ross, and I'm the executive director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. CHF Canada is the national voice of the co-operative housing movement, representing ove

Human Resources committee  Absolutely, and thanks for the question. We know that as co-ops come to the end of their operating agreements and their first mortgages there are two really big things that happen. One is that low-income households living in housing co-operatives lose the rental assistance subs

Human Resources committee  It is a very diverse movement and I wouldn't want to paint with broad brushes. As a sector, we've been working with our members to help make sure that they have really good governance, sound management and good long-term asset management and financing to keep these homes in a go

Human Resources committee  There's certainly interest and concern for the community to offer more Canadians co-op homes.

Human Resources committee  No, there have not been widespread reported cases of a significant number of people not paying rent. Our message to our members is that if you have the means to pay rent you should pay your rent or, as we say in co-op land, housing charges, because that is not only how you keep a

Human Resources committee  I think this would require further study, but we don't have any firm way of correlating the manageable rental arrears in housing co-operatives and the availability of the CERB. That should be studied, I think, but anecdotally we are hearing that the CERB is allowing those with ec