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Successful co-ops maintain their business, their buildings and the environment. Part of maintaining your co-op’s business is ensuring that your board of directors understands financial responsibility, ethical conduct and the difference between the duties of board and staff. While understanding is

The Agency is currently working on refreshing our four key reports for co-ops: the Risk Report, Compliance Report, Plain-Language Financials, and the newly renamed Performance Report (previously known as the Co-op Data Report). Our goal was to make each report more accessible and engaging. We have

Do your members understand the co-op’s audited financial statements, even with the auditor’s best efforts at explaining them? The Agency created the Plain-Language Financials so that co-op boards could answer that question with more confidence.

The idea behind the Plain-Language Financials is

The sun is setting on your co-op’s CMHC operating agreement. Did you know that, soon after, your co‑op will no longer receive the Agency’s reports on your co-op’s health? Many Agency clients rely on our suite of reports—the Risk Report, Plain-Language Financials and Performance—to make informed

In October, we reported on New Money from CMHC for Planning through Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC)’s Preservation Fund. The fund was created as an offshoot of the Seed Funding program, which allows co-ops with federally administered operating agreements, in good standing, to apply

Once a year, all Agency clients get what their boards tell us is our most important report, which is now enjoying a make-over. When you receive it, you’ll see a refreshed Risk Report that is tighter, more visual and easier to read. Although it has a different look, you will find there the same

Your co-op is in the housing business, not the lending business. If a household doesn’t pay what it owes and moves out, you’re left with a bad debt, which will have to be covered by your other members. It is important for your co-op to keep arrears to a minimum and even better, to keep them at zero!

Everyone agrees that housing co-ops need to eliminate member arrears—or at least keep them to a bare minimum. Uncontrolled arrears are the mark of a co-op sliding into financial difficulty, putting at risk its ability to cover day-to-day operating expenses. Arrears also take money out of the members