CIH visit to Canadian Housing & Renewal Association (CHRA)
"Communities in Action : The Housing Agenda": 35th Annual Congress 9-12 April 2003, Toronto, Canada
[Please note: all photos are thumbnails - click on each one to enlarge]
Alistair Queen and I felt privileged to have had the opportunity to attend the Canadian Housing & Renewal Association's 35th annual Congress on behalf of the CIH. We were both interested to see how other countries hold their annual conferences, the organisation and format of the events and what the real issues are for housing in Canada, and what innovative ideas we could gather. CHRA and the Cih are members of the Tri-Country Congress and continue to work closely together to share ideas and best practices. The South East Regions European Housing Group has also been looking seriously at adopting a more international perspective and Canada has been suggested by many people as a country well suited to be the subject of a study visit!
Bob Snell from Kelsey Housing Association joined us on our mission, and like us, he was keen to see and learn. After the Congress, Bob travelled to the national capital, Ottawa, where he has contacts in the CMHC (Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation) and the CHBA (Canadian Home Builders' Association). A very useful visit was arranged to the CMHC to meet one of the Program Managers from Products and Services of CMHC International and to learn more about the research and promotional work with timber frame housing.
A visit was also arranged to one of Ontario's leading manufacturers of energy efficient factory built modular homes. Many of these homes are exported to the USA as Canada is increasingly being recognised as superior in terms of quality and durability in meeting the strict standards of both Canadian and US building codes.
In Canada, CHRA is the national voice for affordable housing, and the national body for all organisations who work in, or have a strong commitment to, the provision of affordable housing. Attendance at the Conference truly represented this wide cross section of interest from across the country. All levels of government, housing associations and practitioners, academia and the business community were representative of the calibre of attendance. Some 400 delegates assembled in Toronto to hear about the issues that unite them, and to share ideas and solutions from which their organisations might benefit. As part of the congress, a series of optional 'mobile tours and interactive workshops were organized for delegates. These essentially were highlight and orientation visits to schemes or developments which organisations in the city of Toronto had or were undertaking, and Alistair and I found these tours to be most useful.
Bob visited the St Lawrence Project, a neighbourhood in a downtown area of Toronto where no neighbourhood had previously existed before its development in the '70s.
The St Lawrence district stretches for a mile across 11 city blocks from Yonge Street, Toronto's main north-south thoroughfare, on the west to Parliament Street on the east.
Over the years the area had been "cut off" from the city by a railway embankment and motorway. It had degenerated into an area of car breakers, garages, parking lots and abandoned sidings. A large area of urban land within sight of the most important buildings in the city, and large enough to provide a complete new neighbourhood was the area chosen to provide a mix of family housing units, apartment buildings and local shops and services. Family housing on inner streets and medium rise apartments and commercial space along the busy thoroughfares was the design concept adopted and reflected Toronto's traditional neighbourhoods, serving households of primarily low and moderate incomes in typical Toronto street related buildings.
The Conference itself was very well organised and took maximum advantage of IT to ensure that all delegates were able to see and hear clearly all keynote and workshop presentations. Indeed, the programme for each day was from 9am to 5.30pm, but with a 2-hour lunch break. On the first day, there was an Awards lunch where individuals who had made major/significant contributions to social housing in Canada were recognised with award, given by the membership or a sponsoring body.
The programme finished at lunchtime on the Saturday with the Annual General Meeting of the CHRA and a keynote speech by the federal Minister responsible for Housing. The day before, the Canadian Prime Minister had just appointed a new Secretary of State to be responsible for housing issues, who also attended the national Congress for both a personal introduction and to share his views. This event was extremely well attended -- in contrast to our own AGM which can struggle, on occasion, to attain a quorum.
The Congress was sponsored by a range of public and commercial organisations and supported by a small group of exhibitors.
We were all very impressed by the quality of the keynote speeches and work shops we attended, not only in their relevance to the issues in Canada but also to what we experience in the UK.
To gain a more comprehensive perspective of the Congress you can visit the CHRA website (www.chra-achru.ca), with all of the presentations available online.
We were particularly interested in the following speakers, either through presence, subject matter and/or delivery:
Thursday, 10 April
- Keynote: - Frances Lankin;
- Workshop: - Local Innovations: what communities are doing;
- Plemary Session: - Attaining a Housing Agenda of particular interest bearing in mind the UK rush to Regional Government;
- Workshop: - Dealing with homelessness
Friday, 11 April
- Keynote: - Rebuilding Communities (n.b. Rodney Dykes was a contributor to this session);
- Workshop:- Building Institutional Infrastructure with Tax based financing mechanisms and Housing Management : Learning from across Canada;
All in all, this was an excellent Congress and opportunity to network with our colleagues and friends in Canada. We are convinced that there is more than enough to see, discuss and hear about that has special relevance for our own national housing issues and challenges. In this regard, Alistair and I propose to organise a formal Housing Study visit to Canada, probably centred in Toronto with an additional visit to Ottawa.
CHRA has agreed to help us put a programme together and support us in planning an achievable itinerary as well as logistical support for reservations, bookings etc. for the Canadian portion of the tour. We intend to visit in October, most likely the 20th to the 25th .
Suggested elements to the programme are:
- Visit to and evaluation of off site prefabricated housing factories;
- The Housing Corporation, a very different organisation from our own;
- An understanding of the Canadian housing system and in particular the funding regime;
- Some visits/tours to innovative housing solution schemes in terms of design, design/architecture, funding, management, resident democracy, regeneration estate & inner city;
We hope to keep costs to between £450 to £550 for a 5 night 6 day visit, with some free time for shopping and sightseeing. CHRA President John Metson, Vice-President Michelle Rypstra and Executive Director Reid Rossi will be attending our own Conference at Harrogate. We propose exploring this idea further with our Canadian counterparts during that time.
If you require further information, please email me on chris.moquet@croudace.co.uk, tel: 01883 335349 or mobile 07760 388957.
Chris Moquet