Our recommendations are as follows. Establish a new business relationship between the Canadian cooperative movement and the federal government under the umbrella of Industry Canada, and create an organization responsible for all cooperative affairs. Create an interdepartmental committee on cooperative affairs that would see to an ongoing, constructive dialogue with the movement, in particular to review all existing programs, laws and regulations and ensure they are fair and accessible to cooperatives, not excluding any other mandate. Transfer the statistical data compiled by the Rural and Co-operatives Secretariat to Industry Canada or to national cooperative associations. Create a cooperative co-investment fund, like the one just created in Quebec, and put in place capitalization tools similar to those found across Canada. Rectify the definition of “prohibited investments” to encourage the capitalization of cooperative enterprises through the use of RRSPs. Preserve and strengthen cooperative development expertise to give all Canadians access to cooperative consulting services in both official languages. Acknowledge and apply the cooperative formula as a means of revitalizing official language minority communities in keeping with the Roadmap for Canada’s Linguistic Duality.
Those are the things we recommend.
Thank you.