Click on the presenter's names within each individual session description to access the PowerPoint presentations. Note: where sessions have no links, PowerPoints are unavailable. Presentations are saved in PDF format.
Tuesday, 22 November, 1.5 Hour Sessions
T1 – T10
9 am – 10:30 am
T1: Rights and Responsibilities of Landlords and Tenants
Join the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) and learn about landlords’ and tenants’ rights and responsibilities. This session will provide attendees with an overview of the Residential Tenancy Act and practical knowledge on specific topics such as:
- conducting a condition inspection;
- ending a tenancy agreement;
- obtaining an order of possession for unpaid rent without a participatory hearing;
- dealing with abandoned properties; and
- preparing for a dispute resolution hearing.
This presentation offers attendees the opportunity to examine the varying issues faced by landlords and tenants, share experiences and ask questions using real-life examples.
Presenter: Suzanne Bell, Executive Director, Residential Tenancy Branch and Maria Verdad, RTB.
This session is sponsored by TL Housing Solutions.
T2: Financing Options for Non-Profits
In this presentation, experienced bankers with expertise in lending to not-for-profits will pull back the curtain and give participants the inside scoop on how financial institutions evaluate loans. Participants will get concrete advice on how to prepare to work with their financial institution: what questions to expect and why; what information to assemble; and what bankers look for. We’ll demystify jargon and drill down to the basic components of a loan request to help organizations prepare to make an application. Workshop participants will learn:
- basic borrowing terminology and jargon;
- the fundamentals of loan evaluation from the banker’s perspective; and
- whether their organization is ready to apply for a loan.
This session is sponsored by Vancity Credit Union.
T3: Business Continuity Planning – Is Your Organization Prepared for a Disaster?
While the negative consequences of natural and man-made disasters may befall any organization, the extent of how these consequences are weathered can either be attributed to luck or to good planning and preparation. Business continuity management (BCM) is an essential element of sound risk management and corporate governance. The objective of this session is to demonstrate how BCM has evolved into a holistic approach that covers the strategic and operation aspects of an organization. BCM goes beyond the narrow view of simply writing a business continuity plan (BCP); it is about risk-management, and is a powerful driver for business sustainability and robustness. Attend this session to:
- understand how business continuity fits into an overall enterprise risk management model;
- learn what the components are in a BCP; and
- gain an appreciation of the BCM methodology and an appreciation of the effort required to implement a BCM program.
Presenter: Joe Ozorio, Assistant Vice President, Marsh Canada.
This session is sponsored by Marsh Canada.
T4: Showcasing Practical Energy Savings Opportunities to Leverage Capital
As non-profit housing providers reflect on impending capital expenditures and how to maintain aging buildings to improve facility conditions and the quality of resident life, they will find a number of opportunities to incorporate green strategies into these upgrades. The utility savings gained by replacing aging, inefficient equipment with high efficiency systems and introducing renewable energy alternatives into these projects can often be used to create incremental capital. This session will focus on the results of actual non-profit housing efficiency/renewal upgrades and discuss the business case for incorporating energy efficiency into facility renewal projects.
Presenters: Doug Wall, P.Eng., and Iain Johnstone, Ameresco.
This session is sponsored by Ameresco Canada.
T5: Energy Management Planning – Townhomes, Duplexes, and Single-Family Homes
Interested in improving the cost-effectiveness of your existing homes or townhomes? This session focuses on opportunities to align energy efficiency with property maintenance and repairs to maximize energy savings while protecting assets and safety of occupants. Our panel will present and discuss the opportunities available to improve efficiency and reduce the energy and maintenance costs in townhomes and small residential buildings. The session will focus first on building an understanding of how to identify energy and maintenance cost-saving opportunities and how to evaluate the associated costs and savings. We will then cover how to maximize utility incentives and finance projects.
Panelists: Energy Efficiency Services Team – City Green; Lance Jakubec, Senior Consultant, Research and Information Transfer, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC); Energy Efficiency and Conservation Team – FortisBC; and Mary McWilliam, Director, Strategic Energy Management, BCNPHA.
This session is sponsored by FortisBC.
T6: BC Housing’s Asbestos Program and Impacts to Staff, Contractors, and Non-Profit Societies
In this session, presenters will discuss recent challenges that BC Housing and a non-profit society have overcome as owners of multiple properties that contain hazardous building materials. It will include how those challenges were addressed through the further development of the asbestos management program and the impacts to staff, contractors, and non-profit societies. The session will:
- identify regulatory requirements for owners and/or non-profit societies;
- identify challenges and responsibilities that BC Housing and the non-profit had and how non-profit societies can benefit by developing their asbestos programs;
- illustrate the communication needed for staff and contractors; and
- highlight BC Housing’s hazardous materials program and potential impacts to non-profit societies.
This session will be of particular benefit to Occupational Health and Safety committee members, building managers, and maintenance managers of non-profit societies.
This session is sponsored by BC Housing.
T7: Made in Canada – Affordable Housing Solutions from Coast to Coast
Looking for affordable housing ideas? Explore the diversity of successful affordable housing solutions in communities across Canada. Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation’s (CMHC) national panel of experts will discuss their unique projects and experiences in developing “Made in Canada” solutions and best practices. This session will highlight new approaches and fresh ideas used by non-profit housing and community groups, the private sector, and municipalities from coast to coast, to create innovative solutions to today’s housing challenges and anticipate tomorrow’s needs. Learn first-hand of the positive impact that affordable housing has made in the lives of Canadians, the availability of program and funding resources, and the reality of project development challenges, as you increase your awareness of resources that will help navigate the operational and social issues involved in developing affordable housing in Canada.
Panelists: Gail Thornhill, Stella Burry Community Services; Alan Thomarat, Canadian Home Builders' Association; Eric Van Maren, Van Maren Group of Companies; and Tom Siems, CMHC BC Community Development (Moderator).
This session is sponsored by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation.
T8: Go Green – Implementing a Green Cleaning Program in Your Facility
Green cleaning plays an important role in reducing the impacts that cleaning has on human health and the environment. This session is designed to provide information on products and procedures that will give attendees the ability to properly implement and manage a green cleaning or housekeeping program within their building or facility. Anyone who is involved in maintaining buildings, including individuals who perform cleaning duties, purchasers, supervisors, and building managers will benefit from this session.
Presenter: Randy May, Corporate Trainer, PlanetClean.
This session is sponsored by PlanetClean.
T9: How the Green Economy Helps to Solve Youth Homelessness
The City of Vancouver has two significant initiatives underway: to end homelessness by 2015 and to be the world’s greenest city by 2020. Pacific Community Resources Society is working to meet these goals through its deconstruction project which provides twenty inner-city youth with an eleven-week life skills and deconstruction training program. This program combats the primary factors in predicting the cycle of homelessness and poverty by training and supporting marginalized homeless youth and young adults to attach to the labour market. The youth have deconstructed two houses, an activity that has had significant impact on diverting construction materials from landfill and bringing recyclable materials into the market. Given that approximately 60% of the chronically homeless adult population started as homeless youth/young adults, this session will:
- showcase the importance of providing youth with the skills they need to reduce and potentially eliminate the ongoing cycle and poverty of homelessness;
- show the role youth play in sustainability through their involvement and engagement in the green economy; and
- show how youth can, and will, build homes for themselves and others.
This session is sponsored by Ameresco Canada.
T10: Building Healthy Communities
Research has demonstrated that the design of communities affects health outcomes such as the incidence of chronic disease, levels of obesity, and rates of physical activity. The Canadian Institute of Planners, its affiliates, and other health research agencies across the country have dedicated substantial effort to building knowledge about the impacts of the built environment on health and advocating for change. However, there are still few examples in BC of on-the-ground collaboration between planners and health professionals. In the fall of 2010, Metro Vancouver brought Vancouver Coastal Health, UBC’s Active Transportation Lab, Translink, and Fraser Health together to form a coalition dedicated to advancing the development of healthy, low-carbon, and equitable communities across the Lower Mainland for housing providers, health practitioners, and policy-makers. Members of the coalition will describe the evolution of the group since 2010, talk about future direction, and highlight recent symposiums on walkability and the housing and transportation cost burden across the region. This session will give participants tools and information that they can use in influencing housing and transportation policy to support affordable housing and healthy communities.
This session is sponsored by QBE.