Finance committee  Thank you very much. Thank you to the chair and the committee for the invitation to appear here today. I'm going to make a few points about housing co-operatives in the context of a high-inflation environment. I'm going to speak about their affordability, security of tenure an

Finance committee  Thank you for your question. The forthcoming program is still under discussion with CMHC, but we do have some thoughts about how to make rural housing development more workable in the context of the national housing strategy program. That could look like a couple of things. One

Finance committee  Good evening. Thank you again for the invitation to appear this evening. My name is Tim Ross. I'm the executive director of the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada. CHF Canada is the national voice of housing co-operatives from coast to coast to coast. In a world of grow

Finance committee  I won't be able to offer you a unit count. What I will say is that the rebate will make the difference in the economic viability of “go” or “no go” for many co-op projects today, tomorrow and into the future. There's another aspect to this. The rebate, because of the co-operati

Finance committee  Well, I would implore all parties to depoliticize the housing crisis and take action on housing. I'm not familiar with the quote, so all I would say is that housing co-operatives in Canada are independent and autonomous from government and are owned democratically by the members

Finance committee  Housing co-operatives in Canada are not-for-profit associations incorporated under provincial or territorial legislation or federal legislation, like a business act or a non-profit act. They are an association of members whose mutual purpose is to develop and provide housing at c

Finance committee  The members who live in the co-operative own the co-operative.

Finance committee  I would agree with the many experts who have indicated that the rebate will incentivize the creation of multi-unit residential rental housing, now including co-ops thanks to this legislation. As to whether that supply is affordable or not, I would say it's very difficult to cre

Finance committee  Yes. We know of many projects that are stuck right now because of the rising cost of borrowing, so it's important that we do two things. One, the rebate certainly helps, but from the co-operative housing sector's point of view, the second very important thing is that the federal

Finance committee  I believe you may be referring to the federal community housing initiative, which is a program that doesn't subsidize housing co-operatives but helps low-income members of housing co-operatives with their cost of housing so that they can remain affordably housed and stably housed

Finance committee  I think the best way to get the message out about new co-op homes is to build new co-op homes. That's why we really look forward to, and anticipate, the launch of the co-op housing development program as soon as possible. We have, as a sector, worked to co-design that program wi

Finance committee  Good evening, Mr. Chair. Thank you to the members of the committee for the invitation to appear tonight. I would love to be there in person; however, I am in Fredericton for work, so I am appearing from Fredericton today. I represent the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada

Finance committee  The shortage of co-operative housing is quite dire, as it is for all types of housing supply. We have a housing supply crisis. Housing co-operatives in Canada make up less than 1% of the housing market. A great deal of research suggests that, at a minimum, Canada needs to doubl

Finance committee  We have been very consistent in identifying the shortage of co-operative housing supply in Canada for decades now, actually. We have not seen a dedicated federal co-operative housing supply program since the early 1990s. To add to the point about productivity, since you were qui

Finance committee  Generally, yes. Officials have been in contact with our policy team at CHF Canada and we are optimistic that the exemptions will be in place for co-operatives and co-operative developers as we're building new co-operative housing supply.