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

1. Formation of Aboriginal Co-ops and Regional ContextIn the first part of this section we analyze the evolution in the number of incorporations of co-ops,with special emphasis on NWT. The second part concerns the particularities of co-ops located inthe north versus the south.1.1 Formation of Aboriginal co-opsIn 1997, only 77 Aboriginal co-ops responded to the Annual Survey of Canadian Co-operatives(ASCC), a response rate ofabout 58.3%. Even thoughFigure 1.1 Number of Aboriginal Co-ops Responding tothe ASCCthis rate seems high compared 16062.0%61.1%139 136 60.3%140to surveys in general, it is13113213160.0%58.3%12058.8%nonetheless relatively low58.0%100when it is compared to the7680 79 80 778056.0%general response rate of the6054.7%54.0%ASCC administered by the40Co-operatives Secretariat,which is about 75%. The20052.0%50.0%1993 1994 1995 1996 1997Arctic Co-operatives Ltd.(ACL) was very helpful to theAbor Co-ops ReportingYearsTotal Abor Co-ops Response Rate (%)Secretariat, providing it with all the annual reports of its member co-operatives. Each year, thegovernment of Quebec sends the necessary data to the ASCC about co-ops incorporated inQuebec. Consequently, Quebec and the NWT are very well represented in the database onAboriginal co-operatives.Number of Co-opsResponse RateThe first Aboriginal co-op wasincorporated in 1945 inSaskatchewan, doing businessin the fish sector 4 . Since the1950s, the number ofincorporations increasedsteadily until the 1990s (seeFigure 1.2), when the numberdropped from 70 (in the 1980s)Number of Co-ops80706050403020100Figure 1.2 Number of Incorporations of Aboriginal Coops840431950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990sDecade70504 Since this co-op is the only one that existed in the 1940s it is accounted for in the 1950s in figure 1.2.67