Special Committee on Cooperatives Committee on July 26th, 2012
Evidence of meeting #6 for Special Committee on Cooperatives in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was co-ops.
A recording is available from Parliament.
On the agenda
MPs speaking
Also speaking
- Lyndon Carlson Senior Vice-President, Marketing, Farm Credit Canada
- Rob Malli Chief Financial Officer, Vancouver City Savings Credit Union
- Michael Hoffort Senior Vice-President, Portfolio and Credit Risk, Farm Credit Canada
- Glen Tully President of the Board, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
- Vic Huard Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
- Andy Morrison Chief Executive Officer, Arctic Co-operatives Limited
- John McBain Vice-President, Alberta Association of Co-operative Seed Cleaning Plants
- Shona McGlashan Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
- Margie Parikh Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Mountain Equipment Co-op
- Neil Hastie President and Chief Executive Officer, Encorp Pacific (Canada)
- Kenneth Hood President, Kootenay Columbia Seniors Housing Cooperative
- Darren Kitchen Director, Government Relations, Co-operative Housing Federation of British Columbia
2:40 p.m.
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Mountain Equipment Co-op
It is the model that many cooperatives use.
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
2:40 p.m.
Conservative
The Chair Blake Richards
Thank you. I appreciate the brevity there.
Madame Brosseau, you have the floor now for the next five minutes.
July 26th, 2012 / 2:40 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Thank you very much.
I'd like to thank you all for being here and sharing your stories of success.
Mr. Hastie, what you were talking about really made me think of a group I met in my riding. They're called SIT. It's a group that's been working for about ten years and they help integrate people who have maybe had trouble finding work, have had difficulties in their life, and they work now. They get contracts with bigger businesses and they recycle things. I went to their warehouse and I was amazed, absolutely amazed. What they do is so sustainable economically and for the environment. We all have TVs. At the end of the term, what do we do with them, right? What they do, and they just transform this, I think is amazing.
I was just wondering if you could talk a little bit more about what you do out there.
2:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Encorp Pacific (Canada)
That's a great connection to the engagement piece, and that's serving a social need as well within the communities. That very much is part of the sustainability formula: the economy and the environment and communities. There are other examples like that. We have some examples of not-for-profits who operate what we call a bottle depot, where you take back your empty beverage containers. They employ disadvantaged citizens to work within the bottle depot.
Those are examples that do exist in a number of circumstances, but they are small in number. I think probably Saskatchewan, not surprisingly, has the largest commitment to that in its network of bottle depots, where they employ exclusively those with disabilities. They have 75 depots that employ exclusively people with disabilities. There are those kinds of natural connections. What we need is to create the chemistry that makes the connection happen. It has to be an organized activity, it's got to be organized under a structure, and that's of course where in fact something like the Cooperatives Act represents that potential structure that will empower those things to occur.
2:40 p.m.
NDP
2:40 p.m.
President and Chief Executive Officer, Encorp Pacific (Canada)
Yes, that's right.
2:40 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
That's amazing. Thank you.
Mr. McBain, I just had a few questions. This has been going on for about 50 years, the cleaning plants in Alberta?
2:40 p.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Co-operative Seed Cleaning Plants
This would be our sixtieth year in January 2012.
2:40 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
How has it changed over the last 60 years? I think at one point you had a few hundred cleaning plants, and right now you have about 70?
2:40 p.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Co-operative Seed Cleaning Plants
Yes, we now have 71 members in our association.
A lot of it has changed because we have lost a lot of the provincial and municipal involvement in our plants. When we first started 60 years ago we were able to access grants from the province and from the municipalities, as well as the memberships. We have lost that revenue, and a lot of the plants. As they've aged, maybe we haven't really kept up with some of the technology. Now, as agriculture is getting a little more money in it, we're looking at upgrading and some plants are trying to do some catch-up.
2:45 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
Okay. I guess with the introduction of a hybrid canola and the plant breeders' rights, that has meant the farmers are purchasing more seed and they're not cleaning as much also.
2:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Co-operative Seed Cleaning Plants
With the canola, and stuff like that, that's been pretty well taken away from the seed plants. That's all done by the big companies now, the Bayers and the Monsantos.
As far as plant breeders' rights are concerned, those varieties are grown by some of the seed growers, and those seed growers can use the local seed plants to clean those seeds. So we are still involved with the plant breeders. We're cleaning up the varieties of grain all the time. So that's where a lot of the newer technologies come in, with the colour sorters and this sort of thing to try to keep the varieties pure.
2:45 p.m.
NDP
Ruth Ellen Brosseau Berthier—Maskinongé, QC
It's really important to invest in research and innovation, I guess. Do you have a lot of money to invest? How does that work? How do you try to keep up with the coming changes and try to keep ahead? Is that a problem for you?
2:45 p.m.
Vice-President, Alberta Association of Co-operative Seed Cleaning Plants
Yes, it is a bit of a problem.
Basically, plants will try a new system. The one seed plant at Bashaw, about three years ago, put in the first colour sorter. By the end of this year, 30-some plants will have colour sorters installed. One plant will try something, and then everybody shares the information. If they can use it in their plants, then they look to invest in that kind of technology.