Affordable housing for all: Let’s make it an election priority

September 24th, 2015 by Celia Chandler

This post was first published on rabble.ca

Last week, I attended the AGM of Accommodation, Information and Support(AIS), a supportive housing provider for 104 Torontonians who have experienced mental health challenges and homelessness; many AIS tenants attended the meeting. Although AIS tenants have not had easy lives, they are lucky to have found permanent housing where they get the invaluable support services they need to live independently. Even as a mature organization with a 44-year history, AIS struggles to find money to create more housing. Each organizational resource ‑- financial and human -‑ is stretched to capacity, with no way to meet the burgeoning demand. The waitlist for people with mental health issues and/or addictions in Toronto has over 8,000 names — quadrupled in the last five years.

This is just one example of the critical need for a changed affordable housing landscape in Canada. Continue reading “Affordable housing for all: Let’s make it an election priority”

Celia Chandler at CHFT Fall Education Event

September 23rd, 2015 by Iler Campbell

Celia Chandler will be leading a workshop at the Co-operative Housing Federation of Toronto’s Fall Education Event on Saturday October 24th. She will be discussing human rights in a co-op setting and the duty to accommodate.

Also at the event are Viola Bardhoshi and Dionne Reid of Prentice Yates & Clark. All three presenters will also be at Tools Conference on November 25.

Learn more about CHFT’s event here.

ONCA Delayed Indefinitely

September 18th, 2015 by Brian Iler

The Ontario Government’s non-profit corporate law reform has been delayed once again, this time, indefinitely.

In an announcement yesterday, the Government’s commitment to bringing the Ontario Not-for-Profit Corporations Act into effect by 2016 was pushed off into an indefinite future.

The Act was passed by the Legislature in 2010, and was expected to come into force shortly thereafter.

But, led by Ontario Non-Profit Network ‑ which was formed to voice the non-profit sector’s objections to many of the provisions in the Act ‑ a vigorous sector-wide campaign led to the Ontario Government agreeing, belatedly, to fix some key problems the Act contained.

Those fixes have yet to be implemented, and appear not to be much of a priority with the current Government.

Now, it appears that the Government intends to replace existing technology for managing its corporate database, and that implementing that new technology has become another roadblock.

For non-profits incorporated under the Ontario Corporations Act, which has been essentially unchanged since 1953, it’s business as usual for a few more years, as the Government promises at least 24 months’ notice of the new Act coming into force, and another three-year transition thereafter.

Daycares: do you meet Ontario’s new licensing requirements?

September 14th, 2015 by Katie Douglas

On August 31, 2015, the Child Care and Early Years Act, 2014 came into force. The CCEYA provides a comprehensive scheme for both home and centre‑based daycare licensing in the province of Ontario. The previous Day Nurseries Act is now repealed, however, remains in effect for daycares currently holding licences under it.

The transition means that all daycares will be required to meet the standards of the CCEYA at their next licensing inspection. There are many new requirements relating to such things as staff qualifications, serious occurrence reporting and records requirements. Further, all daycares are now required to have a comprehensive “Program Statement” that reflects the Ministry of Education’s policy document How Does Learning Happen: Ontario’s Pedagogy for the Early Years. Continue reading “Daycares: do you meet Ontario’s new licensing requirements?”

Climate in election 2015: The time for action is now

August 27th, 2015 by Brian Iler

In 1990, Greenpeace published Global Warming: The Greenpeace Report. It’s a serious work, some 480 pages written by a host of highly qualified scientists and policy analysts.

Perusing the book now is a chilling experience: even then, the scientific evidence it sets out in detail was more than clear, and the book’s call for urgent and drastic cuts to our greenhouse gas emissions has essentially been ignored for the past 25 years.

Continue reading “Climate in election 2015: The time for action is now”

ONPHA Members: Read our just published report on aging tenants

August 26th, 2015 by Iler Campbell

Increasingly, housing providers find themselves in a position where there is a need to intervene in the decision making of elderly tenants with diminished capacity. In a report just published to the Ontario Non-Profit Housing Association’s members only website, Lauren Blumas highlights some of the common challenges housing providers face with aging tenants and provides strategies, resources and tips to help housing providers support tenants with diminished mental capacity while managing risk.

If you’re a member you can log on here to read the report.