Highlighting Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts

The Canadian Network of Community Land Trusts (CNCLT) supports the growth of community land trusts (CLTs) across the country, dedicated to enabling the collective and permanent stewardship of land. CLTs focus on acquiring, developing and managing permanently affordable housing, land and other community assets.

“The model benefits diverse communities, including low-income tenants and equity-deserving groups, such as Calgary’s Urban Indigenous Community Land Trust, which addresses the housing and cultural needs of urban Indigenous communities,” explains Nat Pace, CNCLT’s Network Director.

In the first year of its partnership with the McConnell Foundation, CNCLT launched the Community Resilience Cohort, an initiative supporting five early-stage Black, Indigenous or people of colour-led CLTs. The two-and-a-half-year program provides capacity building to prepare these groups to steward housing, commercial spaces and agricultural land. “By fostering collaboration and knowledge-sharing among cohort members, the initiative has already facilitated significant progress,” says Pace. Achievements in the first year of this program include groups completing strategic plans, securing land donations and submitting major development funding applications.