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

~ C A S E S T U D I E Straining be available to co-operatives such as Akochikan. Initially, a retail manager for theco-op store was brought in from outside the community, with ACL taking on the responsibilityof interviewing and hiring a manager with training and experience. Currently, two local bandmembers are being trained for management positions in the store, and the co-op is alsofocussed on training local persons as employees. Irvin feels strongly that there will be bettermanagement and services if locals are trained to manage them. One of the current managementtrainees is fluent in Cree and English, so she will be able to communicate with oldercommunity members who don’t speak English well, or at all. Both the board and co-opmembers feel that local managers will be more in touch with the culture of the community,and that will make customers more comfortable when using the co-op’s services.Training programmes are needed to enable residents of Pukatawagan to develop thenecessary business education to effectively manage the co-op’s operations. The need forsuch programmes and money to take advantage of them, however, is not a recent development.Co-op members would like to see more assistance and support from the federal and provincialgovernments to enable more community members to seek business training and education.Board members feel that it would be a great help to co-ops such as Akochikan and communitieslike Pukatawagan if more Aboriginal people could be trained in business and co-opprinciples. One current employee of the Akochikan Co-op would like to go to school to studybusiness and learn more about the co-operative system and principles, then return to Pukatawaganto work for the co-op and the community. Money for such an endeavour, however, isnot readily available. Irvin notes that the Akochikan Co-op is growing and gaining moresupport from community members, and he feels that the federal government (throughdepartments such as Indian and Northern Affairs) should support the co-op system as well.Community ImpactSince the founding of the Akochikan Co-operative Association, the community ofPukatawagan has seen many positive changes. People see value in the fact that the co-opis a business owned and run by community members. The co-op store provides services tocommunity members while recycling money within the community, whereas privately ownedbusiness ventures remove money from the community. Approximately 30 to 40 percent ofcommunity members are involved with the co-op, primarily by utilizing services such as theretail store and restaurant. It is important to note that members of the Akochikan Co-op enjoysocial as well as economic benefits. Members of the community and the co-op see the co-opmodel itself as something positive, which is a refreshing departure in a community with manysocial and economic disparities, where it is easy to focus on what is negative rather than whatis and can be positive. Irvin and Lorna feel that because the co-operative model is communitybased, it will continue to play a significant role in building a strong, positive future for the~ 351