The Missing Piece: New Federal Funding Makes a Real Difference

  11 June 2024

As we shared last week, the federal government of Canada recently announced the details of the much-anticipated Co-operative Development Program. Delivered by the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, the program consists of a federal investm,ent of $500 million in contributions, with an additional $1 billion in loans, to build co-ops across Canada. The program is the first significant federal investment in co-op housing in over 30 years.

Since the announcment, our CEO, Thom Armstrong has been busy talking with the media about what the historic investment means for co-op housing in B.C. Here are two of the segments.

‘The Missing Piece’  

CHEK News logo

On June 7, Thom talked with CHEK TV about the announcement.  During the interview, hr called the announcement “the missing piece” of government funding: 

This is really the missing piece. You know, the province has stepped up with a historic investment in affordable housing. Municipalities have been doing their bit by adding land into the equation. We’ve just been waiting for many, many years for the federal government to come back to the table and announce a new co-op housing program. 

Thom Armstrong

You can watch the original segment and learn more about the announcement on the CHEK TV website.  

Is co-op the answer to the housing crisis 

980 CKNW logomark

Thom also appeared on CKNW’s The Mike Smyth Show on June 11th.  During the interview, Thom provided a good overview of what non-profit co-op housing is, and what the Co-operative Housing Development Program means for our sector.

Thom noted how well positiend BC is to access this funding:

“[W]e have a provincial government who’s made a historic investment in housing. We have municipalities coming to the table with. And that can be available for affordable housing development. So when you stack that in to the federal program that’s now on the table, I think we can make a real difference here in, in BC and and start a new generation of co-op housing.”

Thom Armstrong

This is also an excellent “Co-op Housing 101” segment to share with your friends and family who are unfamilair with the co-op housing model and its funding history in Canada.