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

The selling of Inuit art by individual co-operatives was done in the past through personalnetworks and these networks were often lost when the person moved. Also, art galleries wouldsell carvings but no promotion was done for this new Canadian art form. It soon became evidentthat co-operatives needed their own agency to promote and market Inuit art. With the aid of thefederal government, Canadian Arctic Producers (CAP) was incorporated in 1965 as a marketingagency, and its headquarters were established in Ottawa 11 . The greatest achievement of CAP wasits promotion of Inuit Art: this form of art was unknown some forty years ago, but it is nowrecognized worldwide.In 1972, representatives of 26 co-operatives met in Manitoba. They were concerned by thedifficulties they were having in obtaining merchandise for their members. At this time, the onlyeconomical means of transportation was the annual summer supply ship, and financing a year’ssupply of merchandise was a major problem for all co-operatives. Co-operatives were alsohaving difficulties keeping adequate accounting records. It was for these two reasons that the coopsdecided to form a federation. The government of the NWT helped the co-ops by providing$75,000 to cover the first year of operation of the “new” Canadian Arctic Co-operativesFederation Limited, which established its headquarters in Yellowknife.In November 1982, the Canadian Arctic Co-operative Federation Limited and Canadian ArcticProducers amalgamated to form Arctic Co-operatives Limited (ACL). Duplication of staff andfunctions in Ottawa and Yellowknife were costing an additional $500,000 over and above theprojected costs of a unified operation in a southern location. In 1985, the amalgamation wascomplete and the two organizations moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba.Before 1983, northern co-operatives, like other Aboriginal businesses, were alwaysunderfinanced. In 1983, the federal government established the Native Economic DevelopmentProgram designed to assist Aboriginal people to overcome the inability to obtain conventionalbusiness financing. ACL applied for the program, and in 1986 the NWT Co-operative BusinessDevelopment Fund was incorporated to receive the funds and to be the financial arm of the NWTco-operative movement.In 1987, ACL and the Fédération des co-opératives du Nouveau-Québec incorporated a jointventure called Tuttavik. The role of this new venture was to provide co-ops with a showroom fortheir members’ products in the large southern market. The joint venture was operational for11 The federal government invested $480,000 in preferred shares that the co-operatives were required toacquire gradually. Ten years later, the co-operatives gained control of this company, and they immediatelyvoted to reincorporate it as a co-operative.81