ASK Salt Spring: Answered - Ep 32 Nora Layard

Episode Date: February 17, 2024

Ep 32, Ask Salt Spring Answered's Damian Inwood talks to Nora Layard, chair of the Transition Salt Spring Enterprise Co-op about Green Loans and other forms of loans to fund local businesses.

Hi, you're listening to episode 32 of Ask Salt Spring Answered, when we talk to Nora Laird, who is with the Transition Salt Spring Enterprise Co-op, about the loans that they give to the community. So we've been sitting in Ask Salt Spring Answered, and one of the guests today was Nora Laird, who is the chair of the Transition Salt Spring Enterprise Co-op, and we were talking about funding. And one of the things that the Enterprise Co-op, and we were talking about funding. And one of the things that the Enterprise Co-op does is something called green loans. And Nora, perhaps you could tell us a little bit about that and all the different things you talked about this morning, really, about the funding that you are doing. I'd be happy to. Thanks very much. So Transition Salt Spring Enterprise

Cooperative is a mouthful. So we call ourselves TSEC for short, or Green Loans Salt Spring. And it was started in 2011 by Transition Salt Spring folks at that time to try and provide a way for loans to be made to people, businesses, groups who wanted to lower their carbon footprint. Over the last, gosh, that's 13 years almost now, the group has loaned out a quarter of a million dollars to 37 projects. And it's a project, it's a group of volunteers who manage the organization. And we have a couple of different options three different ways of of supporting people in the community with their

projects green loans being one of them so they that's part one they are loans that are made to businesses or organizations here and they can be for there's there's no lower or upper limit in terms of what can be asked for and their loans that we we do due diligence you know we make sure that it's a viable project of course and we work out terms with the person applying but let me backtrack for a sec because TSEC is cooperative it. We are for profit, although I think last year we made $200. It's not exactly a profit-profit driven organization by any means, but we're regulated by the Securities Act. And we have 100 members at the moment,

and each of those members has bought a share for a hundred dollars and they are the people who we go to to ask if they want to support a project that we hear about so a project comes in the door we act as a broker we go to our members and say would you like to support this project we've edited it and they'll say yes or no but in the past we've been oversubscribed every time in terms of people wanting to to loan money to a project so they get they get interest on their on their loan they get paid back as the borrower pays their share back so it's not a grant we're not giving away money by any means but it's low interest and it's really easy to work with and we we have a great desire to make

sure that the projects work and so when when a project runs into a challenge in COVID years, we're challenging for some of the businesses, and we'll work with them to make things better. And then the second fund that we have is actually a loan pool. So our members have put money into a pool, and it's for, we call it the climate action, I can't see it, climate action loans. And they are loans that can be made for, let's see, solar, heat pumps, insulation, whatever.

Whatever can help a person be able to meet the changing times and climate that we're facing now. And so that loan is at 3.5%, which is wildly good. And that's a very easy process. We can turn those applications around very quickly. And the third type of loan is a bridging loan. So many people here on the island have taken advantage of the various government programs where they apply for funding for something to do, retrofitting a house or whatever. And when those grants are made, often there's a big lag time between when the project work has to be done

and paid for and the money coming in. So we can provide some bridging help there. Right. So they would show you that they actually have the money coming, but they don't know exactly when it's going to arrive. Exactly, yeah. So we charge a little administration fee in all three types of funds, but we operate on a very low margin.

We're all volunteers. So most of these loans would be fairly short-term then, I think. Was it one to three years is what I heard? Is that about right? One to three years for the smaller loans, for the loans at this point. Yeah. I think if we were to go into a situation where we were financing a much larger project that had a much longer payback period, we'd, you know, we'd see what that would look like. Right. But most of them are fairly short. So really all your pool of money that you lend out

comes from these hundred people who've bought shares. Is that right? That's exactly right. Are you looking for more people to come in with money or how are you situated at the moment? Well, we always welcome new members. And as I mentioned, we've been oversubscribed. Actually, what we really want are new projects, and we have a couple of interesting ones on the go right now, but we're really looking for

people who have interesting ideas and projects that they'd like to do. And one of the things that we also offer in a what's the right word? I was going to say casual way. That's not the right word,'m just gonna say casual way that's not the right word but we we sometimes have people coming in the door with really interesting projects they're excited about it but they might not have the business background to put together a business plan or a or a well we don't deal with prospectuses but a business plan or an outline whatever the financing putting the numbers together all of that stuff right So we'll work with people to do that

and to try and come up with a project that really works. And sometimes what happens is that we do that work and then the family steps in and says, oh, we didn't realize that was a really good project. Well, we'll help you out. No interest or whatever. But we feel like we've made a contribution regardless. I don't know if you can talk about specific projects, but can you give us an idea of the kind of things

that you have lent money to do on Saltspring? So the abattoir is a really good example. We have had three loans with them now, and each time we've stepped in when they needed to have some bridge financing for their project. And they've been really good clients, if you want to call it that. They have a loan out right now because of a bridge financing situation. So that's one example.

Island Pathways, same thing. We did quite a lot of work with them when they were in Korea. I can't remember which path they were working on but anyway they they they came to us two or three times i think and another project was uh bohemia consignment they to get going it was a startup and uh the um axle and reel as well and uh john shepherd who used to be here and and the shoe repair guy. Oh, right. He was one of our favorite people. And let's see. And currently we have Poppy's downtown,

Brett Little's wonderful place where people can go and work and have space to think and to work away from the kids at home or whatever. And let's see. Oh, yes, Medrona Health. They have also some funding from us to work on their business development. So it's a pretty broad kind of field then. It's not specifically aimed at any one kind of a group then. It can be almost anything.

It can be. We do look for, quote,quote, a green element for sure. When the organization was started, they were really wanting to fund projects that reduce carbon footprint. So we do look for maybe not exactly reducing carbon footprint, but we do look for a green element for sure. And we're also really aware that a healthy community has healthy businesses and healthy projects, community projects so we want to be part of that and support.

So if anybody's out there who has a project and it has some kind of green aspect to it you'd like to hear from them? We'd love to hear from them, absolutely and we have a website and the easiest way to get at that it's a long handle so just just search on green loans salt spring green loans salt spring will get you there right and um what's your relationship with transition salt spring then are you a kind of a side uh

committee of of it or how does it how do you fit in with them so so we the TSEC was started by the founders of Transition Salt Spring right and we have worked with them closely over the years but we are an independent group so you're independent of them now yeah okay yeah so it's two different organizations the name is similar and it's confusing but we are two separate organizations okay and I think you said that you're you're you're almost like another financial institution in that you're regulated by various um you know financial rules and regulations and that kind of thing we are we're so the we're um the bc cooperative act is one of our guide guiding, and we're regulated by the Securities Commission. So people's money is safe with you?

Well, there's always an element of risk, but we try and make it as safe as possible, absolutely. Right. Yeah, and we abide by all the rules and regulations. Now, in terms of sort of total amounts, what are we looking at sort of on an annual basis in terms of how much you've been putting out there or lending people? Yeah, that's a really good question. Well, over the last

13 years, we've loaned out a quarter of a million dollars. I guess one could do that math. But at the moment, we have about $65,000 or $70,000 out in loans, and that's fairly typical. We usually have two or three larger projects, a green loan each year, and then maybe four or five or six climate action loans. Right. But we're really keen to support the climate action loans in particular. Just recently, we've been talking with the North Salt Spring Water District about how to encourage people to get water tanks because we know that summer is coming and we're

looking at drug conditions probably yet again so so that's a that's one of the ways that we get the word out and encourage right and i think you touched wood and said that so far you've never had a loan that hasn't been repaid i did touch touch wood when I did that. And I hope that that's due to our due diligence and people's honesty. And I did mention, sometimes things get a little rough for a business with unforeseen circumstances. And so we really work with them to try and help make it possible for them to carry on. And so far that's worked. It's been great. Okay, great. Well, thanks, Nora, for coming in. And you've been listening to Ask Salt Spring Answered on cheer.fm,

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