Thursday, February 6, 2014
1-2 pm ET (noon-1 pm CT)

Join us for presentations by Reverend Elizabeth Metcalfe and Shantu Mano of Greater Edmonton Alliance, moderated by Elizabeth Lange, of St. Francis Xavier University!

Register now

About A Vision of Flipping the Iceberg of Power: The Greater Edmonton Alliance faces big land and big oil, Alberta

Edmonton is a city of more than 800,000 people in central Alberta, located in the Canadian Prairies. This city-wide alliance is made up of nearly 40 different institutions, including faith groups, unions, community organizations and local businesses. In recent years it has advocated successfully for affordable housing, positive changes in care for the elderly and the creation of a comprehensive local food strategy. Its members encourage people to engage in the public decision-making process and to hold government and market sector leaders accountable to citizens. The alliance helps strengthen member organizations by providing training at the local, regional and national levels.

Download the Case Study

Shantu Mano describes the process of building a credible grassroots organization in one of Canada's largest cities.

Event Contact

Deb Markley
Center for Rural Entrepreneurship
919-932-7762
deb@e2mail.org
http://ruralwealth.org/page/webinars-1

Centre for the Study of Co-operatives Seminar Series 2013–14

3:30–4:30 pm Central Time
Prairie Room, Diefenbaker Building
U of S Campus

Get directions

Reception to follow in the River Room.

This seminar will also be videocast in Regina in the JSGS Window Room, 2nd Floor, Gallery Building, U of R, College Avenue Campus.

Individuals in Regina with mobility difficulties should contact us at 306.966.8506 or audra.krueger@usask.ca at least one week prior to the event.

How have systems of co-operative, mutual, local, and state-owned enterprises fared in the US in the face of financialization and the “victory of the market” during the late twentieth century? Have alternatives to investor-owned corporations been able to retain their distinctive identities, mission, and form? This presentation addresses these questions by analyzing the fates and forms of savings and loan associations in the US, enterprises organized almost exclusively as depositor-owned mutual companies.

Beginning in the 1970s, mutual associations faced increasingly powerful pressures to embrace the market and abandon their traditional forms and community orientation. Many succumbed to the call of the market by converting to for-profit stock corporations. But others remained committed to serving the community and the mutual form. The differences rested on the social structural and organizational contexts within which savings and loan associations operated. Local embeddedness and the presence of particular kinds of social and organizational communities helped sustain mutualism in the face of market pressures, highlighting continuing possibilities for co-operativism and economic diversity in the age of neoliberalism.

Marc Schneiberg is the John C. Pock Professor of Sociology at Reed College, editor of the Socio-Economic Review, and consulting editor of Sociological Science. His research explores the emergence, contemporary fates, and economic consequences of organizational diversity and alternatives to corporations in American capitalism, focusing on co-operative, mutual, local, state-owned, and community-based enterprises in insurance, banking, electricity, and agriculture. His research appears in journals such as Politics and Society, American Sociological Review, American Journal of Sociology, Organizational Studies, Socio-Economic Review, Seattle University Law Review, and Research in the Sociology of Organizations.

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM ET

Investing in building retrofits for greater energy efficiency has the potential to reduce housing costs and improve utilities consumption while supporting emissions reductions. Whether for individual homeowners or affordable housing providers, a diversity of financial tools and programs are required to make it viable to invest in retrofits that will provide long-term energy efficiency savings and returns.

We will be joined by two non-profit organizations that provide financial incentives for energy efficient upgrades in the residential sector. Toronto Atmospheric Fund will discuss their TowerWise Energy Savings Purchase Agreement program, a revolving loan fund approach to financing energy retrofits, in addition to their partnership with Toronto Community Housing. Efficiency Nova Scotia Corporationwill provide background on their interest-free financing program for home energy efficiency upgrades, along with a new pilot program that allows energy upgrade loans to be repaid through the property-tax bill (PACE).

SPEAKERS

Tim Stoate is the Vice President of Impact Investing with the Toronto Atmospheric Fund. Tim has thirty years of experience in impact investing and corporate finance consulting in the banking sector. Portfolios under his management have exceeded $200 million in committed funds and have included residential real estate, construction transactions, and commercial loans.

Toronto Atmospheric Fund (TAF) was established in 1991 by the City of Toronto with a mandate to reduce local greenhouse gas and air pollution emissions. To accelerate the uptake of energy efficiency in the high-rise residential market, Tim and his team have created an innovative new financing tool, an Energy Savings Performance Agreement, (“ESPA”). The ESPA transfers the risk of achieving energy efficiency results to TAF through an insurance arrangement that TAF is pioneering. In addition, through a partnership with Toronto Community Housing, TAF has provided support on a major appliance upgrade.

Amy Brown is a Program Manager with Efficiency Nova Scotia’s Residential Financing program. Amy is a Bachelor of Business Administration graduate with over five years’ experience in the financial services sector. Her work focuses on designing and implementing unique financing incentive options to assist homeowners overcome financial barriers often associated with making energy efficiency improvements.

Efficiency Nova Scotia Corporation (ENSC) is a non-profit organization with a mandate to help all Nova Scotians use energy better. ENSC provides expertise, guidance and financial incentives to assist households, businesses and large institutions like hospitals and universities improve their energy efficiency and reduce their energy costs. ENSC is also dedicated to raising awareness about the value of energy efficiency in our schools and communities, and to fostering the growth of Nova Scotia’s energy efficiency industry. Since 2008, energy efficiency programs have reduced Nova Scotia’s annual electricity load by 4.3 per cent – enough electricity to power more than 46,000 households. Thanks to this work, Nova Scotians are saving $52 million in electricity costs every year.

Space is limited. REGISTER NOW!

Webinars are free for CHRA members.
For non-members, the cost is $40 + tax.

1:30 PM - 3:00 PM ET

Affordable housing represents an infrastructure investment like any other real estate opportunity, with one demonstrable difference: social impact. With the potential for scale, proven debt investment and stable returns, affordable housing has become a key sector of the social finance marketplace – an investment approach based on mobilizing private capital that seeks to deliver a social impact while producing a financial return.

Broadly defined, social finance has been evolving in Canada over the past decade, and has revealed financing opportunities in support of the development of new affordable housing projects. We will hear from two Ontario housing providers - Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation and St. Clares Multifaith Housing - who will discuss their experience in employing a blend of financing strategies to leverage equity for their recent builds.

SPEAKERS

Jon Harstone is the Executive Director of St. Clares Multifaith Housing Society and a consultant with Ganesh Community Development Co-op, a non-profit consulting firm that assists non-profit housing organizations to develop affordable housing. For more than thirty-five years Jon has been assisting in the development of affordable and supportive housing, and has been directly involved in over 45 affordable housing projects.

Ray Sullivan is the Executive Director of Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corporation (CCOC), a mixed-income private non-profit with 1595 units in downtown Ottawa. Ray has worked in the sector since 1999, but his proudest achievement was in helping to create 254 new homes at CCOC’s recent Beaver Barracks development –there were times when he wasn’t sure it would happen at all.

Space is limited. REGISTER NOW!

Webinars are free for CHRA members.
For non-members, the cost is $40 + tax.