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Sapperton Terrace is a housing co-op in New Westminster.
We were established in 1988 and we've got 51 suites
in our building.
We are 22 years old and our building definitely is aging
and we had a number of repairs that we needed to have done.
We were badly in need of funds to carry out some
of these repairs.
So the renovation and retrofit program required
that there were certain needs by the applicant
and Sapperton Terrance applied.
They needed to replace their roof and their heating system.
That did fall under the qualifications for this
initiative and they received more than $530,000
to address those needs.
We needed to get our heating replaced.
There was constant flooding occurring with their hot water
heating, that was radiant in-floor heating,
and we also needed to get our roof replaced which had
reached its life expectancy.
You'll find that in a lot of coops built across the country
they were built at a time when energy efficiency and energy
conservation wasn't top of mind.
So those systems now need to be rehabilitated not only
to reduce the impact of coops on the environment
but also to make their operations more affordable.
So that is the impact on Sapperton and that will
be the impact on many other coops as well.
So when we heard back from CMHC that our grant had been
accepted, we were very delighted cause we knew that
there had been many applications that had gone in.
The end result is this is our first winter since
the project's been done with our heating
and we have not had any flooding.
All of our members have consistent heating
and it is making a huge difference.
If we had not got that funding,
we would have had to experience much higher housing
charges and it really would have put a burden on our.
Sapperton Terrace community.
The impact has been significant in co-ops that
really spent some time looking at their governance practices
and raising the bar on good governance and sound
management in order to qualify for the grants.
Co ops I think have been awakened now to the need to do
long-term capital planning.
Part of that is from our own efforts to emphasize asset
management, but the availability of the money
under the Economic Action Plan has really focused co-ops
on their long-term needs.
They were able to maintain a safe environment for their
residents as well as maintain affordability.