Canadian Funding Corp Reviews CMHC Affordable Housing Reports

Moishe Alexander, August, 2009 – Trucks could be rolling into four Nova Scotia communities as early as this fall to break ground on affordable housing for seniors and people with disabilities.

The Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway and Nova Scotia Community Services Minister Denise Peterson-Rafuse announced today that almost 50 units of affordable rental housing will be built over the next year in Sydney, Port Hawkesbury, Middleton and Amherst.

The funding was made available as a result of a $128 million joint investment under the amended Canada – Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Program Agreement which includes equal funding through Canada’s Economic Action Plan and by the Government of Nova Scotia and through an extension to the Canada – Nova Scotia Housing Renovation Program Agreement.

“Our Conservative Government is committed to making affordable housing available in Nova Scotia and today’s announcement is good news for our province,” said Minister MacKay. “This investment creates much needed jobs, strengthens the economy, and improves the quality of life for Nova Scotians.”

“Making life better for Nova Scotians by increasing access to safe, affordable housing is one of our government’s top priorities,” said Ms. Peterson-Rafuse. “This new housing will allow more seniors and people with disabilities to remain independent.”

Province-wide requests for proposals will be issued starting this week, inviting contractors to submit proposals for the construction of the new units for seniors and persons with disabilities. Tenders will continue to be issued over the next several months.

About 26 independent living seniors’ units will be built in Sydney; Port Hawkesbury will get a barrier-free duplex; 15 seniors’ units, three of which will be barrier free, will be built in Middleton; and Amherst will get a seniors fourplex.

The new units are part of the amended agreement announced in April 2009, which will deliver $128 million for the construction and renovation of affordable housing throughout the province over the next two years. These four communities are the first round of new housing to be built in year one. Year two will see the construction of more units around the province.

“Nova Scotians in all regions of the province will see new and improved affordable housing,” said Ms. Petersen-Rafuse. “The projects will also create construction jobs.”

Roughly $20 million will be spent on the creation, renovation and upgrade of more than 2,600 social housing units in Cape Breton. Northern Nova Scotia will see about $10 million used for the same purposes on about 1,300 social housing units. Central Nova Scotia will get approximately $50 million for the creation, renovation and upgrade of approximately 3,700 units and around $16 million will be invested in more than 1,800 social housing units in the Western region.

In total approximately 180 housing units for seniors and people with disabilities in Nova Scotia will be created and renovations and energy upgrades will be done to over 9,200 individual social housing units.

The remaining $32 million of the $128 million will go towards continued funding for existing provincial repair programs and affordable housing made possible through partnerships with private developers and non-profits.

More than 1,200 affordable housing units in Nova Scotia have already been created or preserved under the Canada – Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Program.

Last fall, the Government of Canada committed more than $1.9 billion over the next five years to improve and build new affordable housing and to help the homeless. Canada’s Economic Action Plan builds on this with an additional one-time investment of more than $2 billion over two years in new and existing social housing and lending of up to another $2 billion to municipalities for housing-related infrastructure.

Nova Scotia Affordable Housing Study
Video provided by Moishe Alexander for Canadian Funding Corp

Part of my conversation with Garry Wise the other day included a discussion about: what to do with the Ontario Reports which every lawyer in Ontario receives on a weekly basis from the Law Society of Upper Canada?  As a new lawyer, I’ve been keeping them with the belief that they may have something useful one day.  Older and wiser lawyers have even told me that I should read up on the cases in my practice area as they will sharpen my skills and I may have to refer to them in the future.  But, truth be told, why is the Law Society of Upper Canada killing so many trees by not simply making the O.R.s digitally accessible?  Perhaps, as Garry Wise suggested in our conversation, an e-mail should be sent out to lawyers on a weekly or monthly basis with all the information we need succinctly organized in a few sentences and with links to the main article somewhere on the Law Society’s website?  I came across a recent blog by Ted Tjaden on Slaw that discusses that very same subject matter.   His post was also featured in the Law Times.  Perhaps the revenue that comes from advertising in print form won’t be as much in electronic format?  Perhaps the print form guarantees that all lawyers receive it, whereas the electronic version may not be accessible to all?   My take on this is: if and when I’m looking for it, I’ll find it online.  As such, I’m going to recycle the shelves of O.R.s I’ve been collecting under the mistaken assumption that I should be keeping them.  Goodbye clutter; hello digital age.  I encourage you to do the same.

Just for fun, I came up with this spoof on the Ontario Reports.  Enjoy…

Remember: if you need a Toronto or Ontario lawyer – be it for a family law, personal injury, tax, civil litigation, criminal, real estate, or business matter – then go to Dynamic Lawyers and make a post. It’s 100% FREE and ANONYMOUS. Ontario and Toronto Lawyers are registered to respond to your legal issue(s) and give you quotes.

http://dynamiclawyers.com/DL_blog/ontario-reports-parody/17/

reviewed by Moishe Alexander, CEO of canadian funding corp

Canada’s housing market has become so much more grounded since the ugly property bust of the last recession that this time around it is one of the most resilient sectors of the economic downturn.The lessons learned from the housing bust of the early 1990s helped prevent Canada from being tempted down the subprime path that devastated the United States and, combined with record low interest rates and government stimulus, has caused the impact of the latest slump to be less severe and relatively short lived, figures released Tuesday underscore.”The turnaround in Canadian housing this year might be the single most surprising turnabout we’ve seen in any economic indicator I can think of,” said Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO Capital Markets. “The fact we saw a little bit of a rebound isn’t a total shock, but the extent of it is nothing short of amazing.”Sales of existing homes in June were up a seasonally adjusted 8.7 per cent from the previous month, marking a fifth straight increase, Canadian Real Estate Association figures showed. Sales were 17.9 per cent higher than a year earlier. Resales activity rocketed along at a record pace in the second quarter, surging by 31.5 per cent from the first quarter of 2009.Porter said the results were “galaxies away” from the yearly decline of about 40 per cent registered at the start of the year.Millan Mulraine, an economics strategist at TD Securities, said record-low mortgage rates were a key difference between the housing bust of the 1990s — when interest rates were on the increase — and now. The ’90s housing downturn, the recovery from which took a decade, resulted in Canada introducing tighter lending standards, which helped prevent house prices becoming too overblown prior to U.S. subprime crisis.Mulraine said that while house prices, sales and construction suffered along with the rest of the recession-struck economy this time around, the market’s relatively stable condition and the relative health of Canada’s banking sector created an opportunity for homebuyers to take advantage of record low interest rates, more affordable prices and government stimulus. The rise in sales activity as well as a drop in new listings have caused the inventory of unsold homes to fall to 4.2 months of supply, the lowest level since August 2007 and well below the peak of 12.8 months hit at the beginning of the year. “Inventory levels are still high in many markets, but fewer new listings and rising sales activity suggests that the selection of homes available for sale may shrink as the year progresses,” said Gregory Klump, chief economist at CREA. “The supply of homes up for sale needs to be drawn down further before average price increases become more widespread among local markets.”The average price of homes sold in June was up 1.7 per cent from a year earlier, skewed higher by rising demand in some of the country’s most expensive markets like Toronto and Vancouver.Klump said monthly sales activity would likely not continue on an unbroken rise, but activity in the second half of this year would “meet or surpass” the results of the first half. Other sectors of the housing market have also registered improvements. Figures from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation showed last week the seasonally adjusted annual rate of housing starts rose eight per cent to 140,700 in June, while Statistics Canada building permits figures showed that construction intentions rose 14.8 per cent in May.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Canadian+housing+market+withstands+recession/1796829/story.html

brought by Moishe ALexander, CFC canadian funding corp CEO