Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members.
I appear before you today on behalf of the Prince Edward Island Co-operative Council, representing 108 island cooperatives and their 80,000 members. Fully 60% of the population of Prince Edward Island belongs to a cooperative.
On Prince Edward Island, the beginning of the cooperative movement can be traced to 1864 and the Farmers' Bank in Rustico. The bank was started by the poorest of the poor, the Acadian farmers of South Rustico, people who had too little land, too little money, and very little education, but ended up running what was probably the first people's bank in North America, a precursor to today's credit union.
For the next 150 years, the cooperative movement continued to gain ground on the island, strengthening communities and the people who lived in them.
Over the past few years there has been change taking place in Canada. We have entered a new era, an era characterized by fundamental reassessment of government spending at all levels. People who over many years have learned to look to government for assistance in many areas of their lives must now learn to look to each other.
In his book Cradled in the Waves, John Croteau, an American economist who had worked on Prince Edward Island in the 1930s and 1940s, described the community of North Rustico as a hamlet sunken in misery. Families existed on one small meal a day, two if they were very lucky. Tuberculosis was rampant. Buildings consisted of a collection of unpainted homes. There was an ancient cold school and a very small church. When he returned to the island in the early 1950s he found a community transformed. It had a paved road and electric lights; there was an up-to-date school with an auditorium, a library, and a radio in every classroom. There was now a credit union, a cooperative lobster factory, and a co-op store.
The cooperative movement had infused new life and new hope into that community.
In the early 1900s, very few fishermen in the Tignish area of Prince Edward Island owned their own boats or gear. They were forced to rely on boats owned by a private company and to give that company one half of their catch in return for the boat rental. The fishermen rarely saw cash, because the company, which also owned the local store, used currency refundable only at the store. In 1920 the fishermen of Tignish got together to form the very first fishermen's cooperative, which today operates under the Royal Star Foods brand and employs 300 people.
In Tignish today, an Acadian fishing community of 800 with an area market of approximately 4,000 people, there is a co-op store selling groceries, hardware, lumber, and clothing. The only financial institution is a credit union. The health centre is a cooperative. The seniors home is a cooperative, as is the local transportation provider. The Tignish Fisheries Co-op Association sells its Royal Star seafood worldwide.
What is notable about Tignish is that it persists, at this point in time when the global financial crisis has resulted in downsizing by government and private sector, with the resulting financial and emotional pain for so many communities of this great land. Its cooperatives are looking after its people, and its people are looking after their cooperatives.
Ten years ago, a national bank in Mount Stewart, Prince Edward Island, closed its only financial outlet in that tiny hamlet. The branch was not making a profit. It was nothing personal; it was just business.
The credit union moved in, and continues to serve the people of Mount Stewart today. Like the bank, it does not make a profit, has not made a profit, but profit is not the reason cooperatives such as the credit union exist. They are there to help the community. They are there to help the people.
In Tyne Valley, Prince Edward Island, with a population of 226 and an area market of approximately 2,000 people, the very same thing happened 15 years ago. It was a different bank, the same reason, and the same result. The credit union, the people's bank, moved in. Today the Tyne Valley credit union sponsors minor hockey, the school breakfast program, and scholarships for the high school, and most recently contributed $10,000 for a new rescue truck for the volunteer fire department.
Over the years, Prince Edward Island agriculture and fishing cooperatives have worked with governments to abolish poaching, increase inspections, develop regulations, and provide expertise to produce quality products. The relationship between governments and cooperatives on the island has resulted in tremendous successes in agriculture and fishing and has helped put Prince Edward Island on the global map.
In the modern sense of the word, a cooperative is a business or a service owned and operated by the people who buy its products or use its service. It is truly a democratic organization open to all. Each member has an equal say in how the organization is run. Cooperatives are essential to our country's smaller rural communities, communities like Tignish, Tyne Valley, Mount Stewart, and North Rustico, communities that survive because of the cooperative business model.
The Prince Edward Island Co-operative Council fully supports the Canadian Co-operative Association and the six points for a government and cooperative sector partnership put forward by Denyse Guy in her appearance before this committee. We encourage you to incorporate her presentation into your report, not just for the good of Canadian cooperatives but for the good of the people they serve.
Thank you for your time and attention.