World habitat day: Conservatives must stop penalizing cooperatives

The Conservative government must stop the Canada Mortgage and Housing Cooperation (CMHC) from imposing harsh penalties on cooperatives that are renegotiating their loan, said New Democrat Housing critic Marjolaine Boutin-Sweet (Hochelaga), today on World Habitat Day.

“The Conservative government is showing it's consistency for taking from the poor,” said Boutin-Sweet. "It reduces funding for social housing, and it keeps cooperatives under the authority of the CMHC by subjecting them to excessive penalties.”

The CMHC imposes harsh penalties on housing cooperatives that want to refinance their mortgage in the long term in order to do renovations. Penalties are equivalent to the total interest payable from now until the end of the mortgage term. In the case of Village Canadian, a Winnipeg cooperative whose mortgage rate was fixed at %13.25, the amount left to pay would be $5.5 million, a small fortune!

“Minister Diane Finley must quickly eliminate or reduce these penalties that keep families in a stranglehold,” said Boutin-Sweet. “It would be a simple way to meet the objectives of World Habitat Day.”