The Canadian Federation of Apartment Associations (CFAA) began a new year with its Conference and Annual General Meeting from July 22 to 23. We have received tremendous support from our member associations over the past year, and are implementing a new administrative structure that will move us forward. Our political presence is also at an all-time high.
Current Activities
We raised the profile of CFAA significantly within our membership, and within government. We have built relationships that will have an enduring influence. Our activities this past year had a direct influence on Housing Minister Fontana's decision to allow federal funding to be used for rent supplements or housing allowances. That was a specific goal CFAA set at our 2004 Conference and AGM.
We are now being contacted by Minister Fontana's office on housing issues, including on tax rules that affect the rental housing industry. We expect our relationships with Minister Fontana's office, the Department of Finance, and CMHC to continue to grow in the year ahead.
Committee Structure
The Board of Directors implemented a new committee structure. The two main committees are the Government Relations and Communications Committee (GRC), and the Membership, Fundraising and Finance Committee (MF&F). Vince Brescia (Federation of Rental-housing Providers of Ontario) will be chairing the GRC Committee, and Lynda Pasacreta (BC Apartment Owners and Managers Association) and Clarence Rusnell (Edmonton Apartment Association) will be chairing and co-chairing the MF&F Committee, respectively.
CFAA Goals
The main committees met during the Conference and AGM to review and begin work on CFAA's major priorities for the upcoming year. The top priorities identified by the Government Relations and Communications Committee are:
Achieving a National Shelter Allowance;
Focusing government funding for new housing construction on special needs housing,
Obtaining tax fairness for the rental housing industry, with a focus on restoring the rollover provisions for the calculation of Capital Cost Allowance,
Other CFAA policy goals are:
Continuing the expansion of the CMHC availability survey,
Eliminating CMHC's 0% down payment program for homeownership as bad public policy,
Securing access for private landlords to any available funding for energy efficiency.
The goals of the Membership, Fundraising and Finance Committee are:
Revising the membership fee structure to raise revenues and to make our fees more sellable and transparent,
Obtaining greater sponsorship revenue,
Growing our membership to include more local associations,
Providing a greater link between individual association members and the CFAA.
CFAA supporters who are not on the Board are welcome to work with either of our two main committees to advance our work. Please let our President (president@cfaa-fcapi.org) or Vice-President (vicepresident@cfaa-fcapi.org) know if you are interested in working with either of the committees.
The Year Ahead
There is much opposition to any moves to redirect government funding away from new construction to housing allowances. We have heard noises about putting housing allowances in the federal housing “toolbox”, but that tool has not been developed yet. CMHC recently commissioned a study to design a housing allowance program. Once that study is released, those opposed to housing allowances are well resourced to fight any moves to implement such a program. We will have a small window of time to move toward program implementation, or at least to keep the program within the consideration of the federal cabinet.
We look forward to another successful year. We have a solid presence in Ottawa. We have a strategic focus on key issues that dramatically affect our industry. We have a government that is considering the views of all stakeholders. We have positions that are in the best interest of Canadians and our industry.
CFAA, the leaders on our volunteer board, our President and our Vice-President look forward to delivering further significant results in the coming year.
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