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

~ C O - O P E R A T I V E S A N D C O M M U N I T I E Senvironment. This approach often sets communities up to be in competition one withanother, for access to limited resources.In Canada, economic development has utilized a business-like model, accompanied byfeasibility studies, market research, and consulting. Often, much of this technical expertisehas been provided by firms or individuals from outside of the community concerned. Thefocus of those involved in the process tends to be the effective functioning of the businessor community initiative in question; performance indicators are those that are easilyidentified and measured, and typically focus on the internal workings of the developmentproject. Since many of these initiatives are tied to government support of some kind, itwould seem necessary that appropriate mechanisms be put into place to ensure that thegovernment’s money is well spent. Unfortunately, the effect is that of refocussing attentionfrom the impact of the initiative on the community to the internal efficiencies of theproject itself. Another more damaging consequence is the refocussing of power and controlaway from the individuals within the community to government representatives familiarwith the programme parameters, as well as to individuals in the community placed in theproject to monitor its implementation. This model is often referred to in the communitydevelopment literature as development in the community. 4In contrast to development in the community, development of the community occursthrough a recognition of the need to start with the community as a focal point, providingmechanisms to enhance the development of local leadership and control. The essentialsuccess factor is local control in the definition of needs, solutions, and evaluation.Community-based planning is fundamental to this approach, and includes all of the communitystakeholders, including business, community groups, local government, and individuals.The notion of partnership is a central feature, and collaborative approaches toproblem solving are necessary as a prerequisite to strong partnerships. This approach hasbecome more commonly called community economic development (CED).Community economic development is typically encouraged by government as a remedialaction when more traditional economic development models have not been working. Thepolicies and programmes that result tend to represent a model that uses a combination of4 The distinction between development of and development in the community is highlighted by Ron Shafferand Gene F. Summers, “Community Economic Development,” in James A. Christenson and Jerry W.Robinson, Jr. (eds.), Community Development in Perspective (Ames: Iowa State University Press, 1989), pp.173–74. In their chapter they refer to CED as an example of development in, while CD is identified as anexample of development of the community. The authors of this study disagree with their characterization,defining economic development as development in and CED as development of the community.~ 237