Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to thank committee members for having invited us to participate in this meeting.
The Caisse d'économie solidaire Desjardins is a cooperative financial institution which is a member of the Mouvement Desjardins, the biggest cooperative financial group in Canada. With assets of $227 billion, the Mouvement Desjardins is considered the fourth safest financial institution in North America by the magazine Global Finance, and the second most solid in the world according to the Bloomberg financial information agency.
With assets of $737 million, the Caisse d'économie solidaire Desjardins has, for 44 years, played a major and preponderant role in Quebec when it comes to social finance. Its assets have more than doubled over the last 10 years and its loans to social businesses have increased by 122% over the same period.
The membership of the caisse is made up of 3,000 associative or cooperative companies from various sectors of activity and of 12,000 individuals. It serves as an intermediary between savings—that is to say supply—and funding for businesses from the social economy—that is to say, demand. Desjardins offers investments with social returns. Deposits are guaranteed by the Deposit Insurance Corporation of Quebec. In 2014, savings in our institutions amounted to $617 million and loans came to $622 million, including $477 million used to directly finance projects with a social impact.
The caisse offers borrowers a wide range of credit products, term loans and lines of credit. We generally underwrite these loans to support the activities and development of social projects.
The caisse is also a very active member of Cap finance, the Réseau de la finance solidaire et responsable, which recently appeared here. The caisse collaborates with its natural financial partners from the associative or union networks to obtain the non-guaranteed portion of the financial package, that is to say, patient or venture capital.
The caisse is the biggest institution in Quebec's social economy financing network. It makes up more than 40% of the total volume of social financing. In Quebec, according to the latest statistics, the social finance sector represented $1.4 billion. In Canada, according to the Responsible Investment Association, the social finance sector amounted to $4.3 billion.
I would like to give you some examples in this regard.
The caisse plays an important role in the development of collective housing. It provides financing for nearly 10,000 units of social housing in Quebec. In 2014, this sector represented more than 50% of the loan portfolio, a value of $262 million.
The caisse has long been a financial partner of the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec. Its funding to this institution amounts to $30 million. We have also set up financial services counters for the Inuit population in various villages. This is a project that is currently being carried out with the Mouvement Desjardins. The social impact of this is access to a bank account for an isolated population spread over a vast area.
The caisse is a solid and viable financial institution. Ever since its foundation, it has aimed to use finance to create a more just economy. In an economy at the service of people, finance becomes a means and not an end in itself. What distinguishes the caisse from a philanthropic organisation is that it seeks to remain profitable. This is necessary to the survival of the projects it funds.
The surpluses gained through its credit intermediation activities are in part capitalized to ensure that it is financially sound. From the very beginning, members agreed to have the part of the surpluses they could receive individually returned to the community as collective dividends. For a number of years, this has meant nearly $1 million per year provided as donations. Through these donations, the Caisse has been able to co-found an innovative services exchange network in Quebec for people living in poverty. This Quebec initiative, called l'Accorderie, has spread to France and Morocco.
Housing, access to financial services, reintegration into the workforce, literacy, health services, homelessness, food security and the environment are some examples of issues that businesses funded by the Caisse have addressed in order to find solutions.
Social finance exists because there is another economy, that is, the social economy. The Caisse sees social finance as an alternative to traditional finance. Social finance belongs in a mixed economy, along with the private and public economy, to support the development of entrepreneurial initiatives driven by the wish to meet the needs of people and communities, and not only first and foremost by a striving for profit and personal enrichment.
This social economy and the social finance that supports it deserve to be recognized and encouraged. We welcome this committee's initiative and hope that social finance and the social economy will be acknowledged and supported by the federal government through programs such as start-up programs, envelopes for research and development for social economy businesses, training programs for both administrators and managers in cooperatives and associations, and finally, research programs to document the impacts of social businesses and their innovations.
Thank you.