Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada - Centre for the Study of Co ...

Aboriginal co-ops remain active in the labour market. While the average Aboriginal business isemploying 2.6 full-time employees, the average Aboriginal co-op has about 12 full-timeemployees.The average salary in the co-op is still lower than the average Canadian salary ($19,515 and$27,823 in 1997 respectively).The ratio of equity-to-assets of Aboriginal co-ops seemed high compared to other co-ops (47.0%versus 32.6%). This could be explained by the fact that Aboriginal co-ops have less access todebt and tend to substitute debt by equity.Aboriginal consumer co-ops have more product lines (e.g. food, snowmobiles, taxi, hotel,cafeteria, etc.) than the other consumer co-ops. As a result, the average member of an Aboriginalconsumer co-op spends more ($210 per week) than the average member of a consumer co-op inCanada ($54 per week).Aboriginal consumer co-ops are growing at a rate almost twice that of the retail sector or theother consumer co-ops. Their volume of business has been growing at annual average rate of9.8%, while their competitors recorded a rate of 5.1% (retail sector) and 4.4% (all consumer coops).North West Territories (NWT) co-ops are more active in the labour market than other NWTorganizations. Between 1993 and 1997, NWT co-ops had annual increases of staff of 12.0%,while other NWT organizations employed about 3.9% more workers annually.Co-ops are more popular in the NWT than elsewhere in Canada. In 1997, 20% of the NWTpopulation were members of a non-financial co-op, compared to 15.7% at the Canadian level.Co-ops in the NWT deliver not only social benefits to the community, but are also an efficientform of business enterprise. Between 1994 and 1996, before tax profits accrued by co-ops in theNWT increased 10.1%, compared to 7.9% for all non-financial corporations in Canada.In conclusion, we can say that the co-op sector is a consistent form of social business amongAboriginal communities, particularly for northern populations. Its devotion to the social contractdoes not prevent it from being financially and economically a viable form of organization.119