The CFAA held one of its most successful National Meetings from June 8-10 in Ottawa. They added an eye opening and successful National Housing Conference day to the 2006 Annual Conference and AGM which brought in stakeholders from across Canada. The event was an overall success and in fact shows us the significant progress the CFAA has made in being recognized as the voice of Apartment owners and managers in Canada.
CFAA Conference
The morning of June 8 consisted of provincial
reviews and the year in review. One of the
highlights of the provincial updates was the Ontario
report. As many of you may know Premier Dalton
McGuinty promised a return to pre-1998 rent
controls due to the problems in the market caused
by the voluntary vacate and tenant requested
improvements provision added in 1998. The final
result of their changes to rent legislation is that
there has been no move back to pre-1998
conditions in the new legislation. The Premier of
our neighbor to the east recognized that removal of
Manitoba style rent controls in 1998 has stimulated
the economy and opened up the rental market just
as it did in our western neighbour, Saskatchewan.
That leaves Manitoba and Quebec as Canada’s
sole holdout jurisdictions with 1970’s style rent
controls.
An afternoon seminar on lobbying was held with the assistance of two professional Ottawa lobbyists. This was followed by two case reviews of lobbying, one from New Brunswick and one from Saskatchewan. All participants came out with new knowledge and new respect for the strengths of other provincial associations.
National Housing Conference
There were sixty eight participants at the National
Housing Conference sponsored by EOLO (Eastern
Ontario Landlords Association) and the CFAA.
This conference looked at national Portable
Housing Allowances, a housing policy that the
CFAA promotes. CMHC, parliamentary assistants
and an Ontario MPP were joined by the CFAA
Board members, numerous economists, housing
policy makers and advocates. CMHC’s report on
Core Housing needs was scheduled to be released but
was delayed.
This report will look at how many Canadians spend more than 30% of their gross income on housing and what it might cost to fund housing construction or to provide portable housing allowances to each family unit in need. For example, a family may be given $100 a month to use in paying their rent (or mortgage) each month and allowed to spend it on any housing, not only in government subsidized housing. The conference focused on how portable housing allowances work as compared to the construction of social housing.
Dr. Meryl Finkel (PHD, Harvard) of Abt Associates, who managed the soon to be released CMHC study showed how her research over the past twenty years demonstrated that portable housing subsidies are preferable to the construction of social housing from a pure economic standpoint. Dr. Marion Steele (PHD, U of Toronto) has also worked on many CMHC studies and is an expert on Quebec’s portable housing program presented as well. She concurred that portable housing subsidies are an overall better choice. Her presentation included a look at Manitoba’s SAFER and SAFFR programs which she found to be a good implementation of portable housing allowances. She stated that Manitoba’s program, while good, only helped families and the elderly, but did not address the needs of single people. A true national policy should address the core housing needs of all citizens.
Lively discussion and debate ensued in the afternoon between panels of experts, with housing advocates stating that bricks and mortar buildings have worked well and are likely better than housing allowances. Apartment managers and economists argued that housing allowances can help many more people each year rather than one person for many years with similar money. In fact a program design from EOLO showed how, in Ottawa, thousands of people could be helped for seventy years by a capital fund (with money left over) with the money required to construct tens of units of social housing that have a fifty year expected life. This showed a better than 25-1 ratio of people helped with portable housing allowances as compared to social housing projects. In the end it was agreed that there is likely a place for both social housing and for portable housing allowances.
CFAA AGM
The CFAA AGM was held on Saturday, June 10. The
Board reconfirmed the appointment of John Dickie
(Dickie Lyman LLP) as President and Jean Francois
Bigras (CORPIQ, Quebec) as Chairman. John Dickie,
as you may recall heads up our lobbying team at Dickie
Lyman.
The Board decided that, having made significant headway in housing issues over the past year, the majority of the CFAA’s lobbying efforts will be dedicated to tax issues such as Capital Cost Allowance issues and capital gains rollover provisions for apartment owners selling one property to acquire another.
As your CFAA Board Representative I will remain a member of the Membership, Fundraising and Finance Committee and am on a task force looking at national reporting of tenant arrears and debt.
I hope this summary provides some insight into ongoing
CFAA work. Call me at 339-0461 if wish to see the
binders from the CFAA Conference or National Housing
Conference or have any questions about the CFAA or
portable housing allowances. Have a great summer.
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