News

“Blended Financing for Impact: The Opportunity for Social Finance in Supportive Housing”

Join us March 21, 2013 at 12:00 noon EDT for the release of the report “Blended Financing for Impact: The Opportunity for Social Finance in Supportive Housing”

Driven by the work of the Turning the Key report commissioned by the Mental Health Commission of Canada (MHCC), a number of supportive housing providers in Canada struck a Social Finance Working Group in 2012 to explore social finance opportunities in the supportive housing sector. The objective of the project was to provide a clear pathway for supportive housing providers to learn about and engage in alternative methods of financing for improving and developing new dedicated housing units in Canada.

“Blended Financing for Impact: The Opportunity for Social Finance in Supportive Housing” identifies and outlines a number of social finance models, identifies principles for an effective social finance strategy for the supportive housing sector, highlights challenges to further adoption of impact investing, and offers recommended actions to increase the supply of supportive housing through the use of social finance strategies.

Canada falling behind on poverty, inequality, says report

from CBC News

Canada isn't living up to its potential or its reputation when it comes to societal issues like poverty, government and inequality, according to the Conference Board of Canada.

The group gave Canada a 'B', good for a 7th place ranking out of 17 developed countries, but it said the "middle-of-the-pack" ranking leaves room for improvement.

Getting an 'A' at the top of the rankings were the Scandinavian nations (Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland) as well as the Netherlands and Austria. At the bottom were Japan and the U.S., both getting a 'D' ranking.

New data in the catalogue: Newcomers, business patterns, and going postal with consumer debt

The June 2012 order from our list of upcoming data products (Schedule B) is now officially available in the Community Data Program Catalogue. This includes datasets on consumer credit, immigrant landings, Canadian business patterns (December 2011 only—June 2012 is on its way!), and a file for mapping Postal Codes. If you do anything interesting with the data, make sure to let us know so that we can show off your work.

Read the complete Newsletter

Making It Count! is a new quarterly newsletter offered to registered users of the CCSD Community Data Program and organizations working with community data. Every three months, you'll receive the scoop on what's happening in the world of municipal and neighbourhood data. Showcasing innovative uses of program data, highlighting upcoming training and special events and passing along the latest news on new data and tools, Making It Count! connects data users to the resources you need.

Reverse the cuts

In March 2012, the Government announced a reduction of more than 8 percent over 3 years to the budget of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). This $319 million cut is equivalent to the cost of one of the sixty-five F-35 fighter jets the Government wants to buy.

We are calling on the federal government to reverse cuts to CIDA and restore funding in Budget 2013.

JOIN THE CAMPAIGN!

Experts, politicians weigh in on Broadbent Institute income inequality report

OTTAWA—Following the release of Towards a More Equal Canada, a discussion paper on income inequality, the Broadbent Institute has published the first of a series of responses to the report from a number of academics and politicians. This first round of responses includes opinions by Senator Hugh Segal and academics Luc Turgeon and Katherine Scott. Alongside the paper, these newly-released responses represent the next step in the Institute’s Equality Project.