2024 Annual Meeting: Building Communities Together

Published June 18, 2024

More than 500 co-op members and supporters attended CHF Canada’s 2024 Annual Meeting in Winnipeg from June 6 to 8 to learn, network and make important decisions in support of the meeting theme ‘Building Communities Together’ and our shared vision of Co-op Housing for All.

Hundreds of co-op members and staff participated in more than 50 workshops. Workshop materials can now be found in the Resources section of our website.  We also created a digital display table where you can browse all the latest resources and materials CHF Canada had on display at the Annual Meeting.

The opening  plenary on June 7 featured a performance from Indigenous dancer Brian Clyne and drummer Clifford Spence. Members heard a keynote from co-op entrepreneur and Rochdale Award recipient Howard Brodsky. And longtime co-op housing sector leader and Winnipeg resident Linda Ferguson received CHF Canada’s Honorary Lifetime Associate award.

The National Business Meeting on June 8 opened with a welcome by Lionel Houston, who hails from the Sagkeeng First Nation, virtual addresses from Winnipeg Mayor Scott Gillingham and federal MP Adam van Koeverden, and an in-person address from Manitoba’s Minister of Housing, Addictions and Homelessness Bernadette Smith.

The Award for Co-operative Achievement was presented to members of Neill-Wycik Co-operative College for their student food pantry program.

Members approved two board-sponsored resolutions and one member resolution.

Resolutions adopted at the 2024 Annual Meeting

1. Making CHF Canada Board Directors turnover more manageable
2. Equitable representation in all regions for a stronger co-op housing movement
3. Readying the co-op housing sector for the next federal election

Members elected Anne Davidson, Sarah Jensen, Sahara Shaik and Nicole Waldron to At-Large positions on CHF Canada’s Board of Directors.

We said thanks to departing Board Members Isabel Ciok, Don Goss, Coral Heatherington and Tanya von Idler.  Also elected this year in online elections prior to the Annual Meeting were Regional Directors:

• New Brunswick/Prince Edward Island  – Emmanuelle Proud-Thomson
• Nova Scotia/Newfoundland and Labrador – Angela Simpson
• Quebec/Nunavut – Claude Pépin
• Ontario – Allison Chase, Mary Ann Hannant and Dawn Obokata
• Saskatchewan/Manitoba – Laura Williams
• Alberta/Northwest Territories – Asha Hersi
• British Columbia/Yukon – Cassia Kantrow

Elected to the Finance and Audit Committee is Judy Skinner.

After the Annual Meeting at their first meeting, the new CHF Canada Board of Directors elected Cassia Kantrow as President, Nicole Waldron as Vice-President, and John Bathurst as Treasurer.

In case you missed it

• Download workshop materials for the Member Education Forum and the Co-operative Management Conference in the Resource Centre.
• We’ll be posting a video recording of the Business Meeting on YouTube soon.
• Look forward to joining us for the 2025 Annual Meeting in Toronto in a venue just blocks from where Mississauga begins. This event will be jointly hosted by the Co-op Housing Federation of Toronto and the Peel/Halton Co-op Housing Federation.