Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That falls into one particular grouping of co-ops, which is basically the consumer co-op kind of model. I don't know how much crossover there would be, for example, between producer or work co-ops and those kinds of things. All of the things you're mentioning are more retail prod

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We have the centrals as members, including the Credit Union Central of Canada, who have all helped with our formation. As well, we have a number of credit unions across Canada—and again, we're adding more to the numbers in 2012. There are people buying memberships and having a sa

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you for the question. With the systematic approach we have, if a credit union starts to run into problems, they'll be absorbed by the system and another credit union will come in to assist. That's the cooperative nature of the system. That doesn't exist between competitive

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I don't think I can speak personally to what the credit risk policies are for specific credit unions, since they are all individually—

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  One thing I can say is that they would understand the cooperative principles and the governance principles. I don't know how that weighs in their factors in looking at risk and a possible default on a loan, but they would understand it.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think cooperatives probably would be able to communicate their programs and the way they're governed much better to a credit union than they would to a traditional bank.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I would agree with that.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think it really depends on which pockets of Canada you're looking at. Speaking from what I've seen in Saskatchewan, I'd say yes, in 2009 there were a lot of success stories with credit unions. But it depends on...because if it's a farming community and grain prices are high tha

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you for the question. Our loans are basically now facilitated through the credit unions themselves, so the credit union may have a client who is interested—whether it be a cooperative or a commercial client or whatnot—in having a loan put in place, but it's a loan that mig

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I see a lot of the work. The work that we've done in Concentra Trust, for example, offering corporate trustee services to new co-ops starting up somewhere in the country, which need to issue debentures and a trustee for that. It's that kind of thing. We will offer a helping hand.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes, expertise, a helping hand, and reduced rates usually to our cooperative partners. Our fees are usually reduced just because they're part of the cooperative system. In particular, we look at our registered plan program in Canada. Our credit union partners get a significant di

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Certainly. Thank you for the question. One of the models I'm a little more familiar with is the Arctic Co-operatives model. I believe that they might be one of your witnesses.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That's one model. They are an umbrella organization. Underneath them are the hotels, gas, telecommunications, grocery stores, and so forth. They don't have a financial co-op model up there, but they are looking for ways to do that. Unfortunately, there are some legislative rest

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That’s one thing I had suggested Arctic Co-op consider doing because they were in such desperate need of financial services up in the northern areas. The model I suggested was that they incorporate, that they have a fund to create a retail association so that the money would flow

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Not that I'm aware of. That's not to say that it hasn't been. I'm not certain that it has; I'm not aware of it.