Tags: assistance

11 Mar 2010, Comments Off

Social Housing in Halifax Under Renovation

Author: admin

Ed Holder, Member of Parliament for London West, on behalf of the Honourable Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development and Minister Responsible for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), today announced mortgage loan insurance policies to facilitate the financing of student housing in Canada.

“Our government is dedicated to meeting the increased demand for student housing across the country” said Ed Holder, Member of Parliament for London West. “We’re helping developers and borrowers access competitive interest rates for the life of the mortgage, benefit from greater financing choices and lower renewal risk. Our government is supporting students and creating jobs in university and college communities across the country.”

The Government of Canada will help finance loans of up to 85 per cent of the lending value for the construction, purchase or refinancing of housing purposely built for students on or off campus through CMHC’s Mortgage Loan Insurance for multi-unit student housing. This initiative supports the housing needs of Canadian publicly funded educational institutions, including universities and colleges.

The demand for student housing is anticipated to continue to increase for an extended period as a result of changing demographics, forecasted enrolment figures and continued growth in international students.

“Today’s announcement is good news and will help developers in Canada respond to the housing needs of students,” said Ray Stanton, President of London Property Corporation.

The Government of Canada has taken additional measures to help Canadian families. As of August 1, 2009, new federal student financial assistance measures — the Canada Student Grants Program and the Repayment Assistance Plan — are helping students and families access postsecondary education and better manage their student loan debt. To find out more about how the Government of Canada is helping students achieve their educational goals, visit CanLearn.ca.

As Canada’s national housing agency, CMHC draws on more than 60 years of experience to help Canadians access a variety of quality, environmentally sustainable, and affordable homes — homes that will continue to create vibrant and healthy communities and cities across the country.

Governments, utilities and many clients want you to use IDP. Natural Resources Canada’s (NRCan) Commercial Building Incentive Program (CBIP) is expressly designed to provide monetary assistance to owners and design teams to enable them to spend the time to implement integrated design on your projects. This program grew out of experience that NRCan had in the 1990s with C-2000, a demonstration program.
The experience was that some additional design expertise was needed, but that most building performance gains came from a change in the process, and the most
successful projects employed the IDP. Several utilities have programs that support IDP. BC Hydro has its High Performance Building Program that provides co-funding to perform energy studies and it is about to launch a program to promote IDP.
Enbridge Gas Distribution and Union Gas in Ontario jointly offer a Design Assistance Program that provides a fixed incentive for design activities that improve your building’s energy and environmental performance. Enbridge also has a New Building Construction Program that provides incentives for adding some efficiency measures.
Mountain Equipment Co-op, which has built some of the most progressive green buildings in Canada, seeks to improve performance with each new store and requires its design teams to utilize IDP.
It was key to achieving the impressive performance these buildings have demonstrated to date Green Buildings BC, a program that provided tools and resources to help B.C.
education and health care agencies build green buildings, recognizes the value of IDP in its Guide to Value Analysis and the Integrated Design Process.
Clients who do not explicitly ask you to use IDP likely would do so if they knew the value that IDP and green design could add to their projects. Reviewed by Guiseppe Strazzeri.