The PLANCHER Fund governance workshop was held on May 14 at the brand new Centre des Mémoires Montréalaises or MEM. At the end of the day, a group of founding members was established. So far, 24 sector representatives signed up for it. Their responsibility is to integrate the Fonds PLANCHER and arrange its first general meeting.
The workshop aimed to create a governance framework for the non-profit organization overseeing the Fund. Additionally, it sought to encourage idea exchange and stimulate dialogue among various stakeholders in the sector. All these efforts were directed toward collaboratively developing a well-considered roadmap.
The session took place in hybrid mode, and the entire community housing ecosystem was represented: housing providers, financial institutions, NPOs, housing cooperatives. There were 60 face-to-face and 30 online participants.
Are you from Quebec’s housing sector, and would you like to become a founding member? Submit your information here.
What type of governance for the PLANCHER Fund?
The day’s objective was to answer three main questions:
- Who will be the members of PLANCHER?
- Who will be PLANCHER’s Board of Directors?
- What will PLANCHER’s investment priorities be?
After going through the steps involved in the process, participants were invited to carry out several participative group exercises, enabling them to discuss and respond to these fundamental issues.
Regarding membership, the groups discussed not only the types of members, but also the processes for selection and renewal, and the conditions to be met.
As far as the Board of Directors was concerned, the focus was on the skills sought in prospective Board members, the composition of the Board, the various stages involved in the selection process, and the potential participation of observer members.
Questions on investment priorities resulted in lively and debated discussions, but all seem to agree that the course to be followed should be that of simplified financial mechanisms. Discussions focused on affordability and territorial equity also went well.
The sector’s expectations
Attendees arrived at the workshop with open minds, keen to explore the future of Fonds PLANCHER. Throughout the day, the atmosphere was bursting with a tangible sense of optimism, confidence, and community mobilization.
As Sandra Turgeon, Executive Director of the Confédération Québécoise des Coopératives d’Habitation (CQCH) points out: “We were drawn to the PLANCHER project right from the start. It is very interesting and stimulating to see where this great mutualization project is going. Structurally speaking, we’d like the PLANCHER project to help housing cooperatives develop and grow.”
On the crucial question of whether to develop or preserve the building stock, the responses were unanimous: it is not one or the other, but one AND the other, both are necessary.
“We’ve already lost a lot in terms of preservation. We must work on both aspects at the same time, we have no choice,” said Marcel Pedneault, Senior Advisor at la Société d’Habitation des Communautés Noires (SHCN).
Several participants on site and online shared their enthusiasm at the end of the session, and from their speeches, a few inspiring keywords emerged: confidence, taking control of one’s destiny, convergence, consolidation, and inspiration.
Looking ahead
We are delighted with the turnout for this workshop, and with the concrete results this team effort has brought to the PLANCHER Fund.
A detailed summary of the results will be sent in the coming weeks. The PLANCHER Fund is taking shape, and its founding meeting is likely to take place before the end of the year.
Click here for more information on Plancher.
