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 Salways a difficult challenge for government, yet a challenge that must be met if acommunity development process is to take hold.Support for the Development of New Co-operativesand Establishing Development Co-operativesAs discussed previously, new co-operatives do not develop without support from existingco-operatives and governments. There is no centralized plan and strategy for the systematicdevelopment of co-operatives across Canada. Governments must recognize that newco-operatives have to be given, at a minimum, the same degree of support that would beaccorded private business development. Governments should treat the establishment ofnew co-operatives as an activity that requires high levels of business and human resourcedevelopment expertise, levels with which government would assist any type of business inthe interests of community economic and social well-being.The results of a study of co-operative development in Canada highlighted the importanceof an integrated approach. It concluded that despite successes, changes introduced to theCanadian co-operative movement in the early 1990s have left a gap in the infrastructureto serve new co-operatives. “There is a structure to support the co-ops that are ‘institutionalized,’but when it comes to new co-ops, there is a problem.”The study further suggests that “the issue is to encourage … co-ops that are lasting, rootedin communities … (which) develop their members. The way to do this is to develop theinfrastructure that supports and develops co-operation both before and after incorporation,that draws new co-ops as much as possible into sectoral or multisectoral communityfederations (or both), and that ensures the co-operative movement and not governmentdirects the policies that promote co-operative enterprise development.” 30Exploring the Co-operative CED PossibilityThe introduction of the co-operative possibility into the general community economicdevelopment process is a delicate matter even though co-operative organizers were usingessentially this approach long before CED was conceptualized. The co-operative model isnot a panacea. It is not a quick fix. It is not an approach that can be created in a top-downmanner. Nor is it an approach that many people will intuitively consider, since it is notwidely practised today and knowledge about the co-operative movement as a force foreconomic and social change is not as widespread as it once was. It is not discussed in the30Brett Fairbairn, Murray Fulton, Lou Hammond Ketilson, Peter Krebs, and Mark Goldblatt, Co-operativeEnterprise Development in Canada: An Action Plan, Report to the CCA/CCC/Co-operatives SecretariatSteering Committee (Saskatoon: Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, 1993), pp. vi and vii.~ 253