I will take over.
We intend to continue developing this new formula wherever possible. As one of Canada’s largest employers, La Coop fédérée and its network of affiliated cooperatives are significant agents of economic development in rural areas. For nearly five years, La Coop network has been involved in a wide-ranging restructuring process named the “Chrysalide” project.
The process is intended to pool the production assets and agricultural services of participating cooperatives to ensure that they can operate as a single unified body. This new approach is very innovative in management terms since it paves the way for economies of scale and critical mass, which are usually generated by corporate mergers. The approach, however, preserves the community’s local involvement and feeling of belonging.
It should produce several tens of millions of dollars in recurrent savings that will benefit our members and, indirectly, each region’s economic status. Unsurprisingly, restructuring usually means closing businesses and job losses. The “Chrysalide” project does in fact include the closure of several establishments, but they will generally be replaced with other, more employment-generating activities.
In this respect, La Coop network has reiterated its commitment to sustainably developing its activities and to converting agricultural biomass into energy production. There are several pilot projects currently under way to produce bioenergy from agricultural biomass. And we have recently joined forces with a group of Manitoba researchers, Prairie Bio-Energy Inc., to market technologies they have developed and to create a division dedicated to producing and distributing energy from agricultural and forestry biomass.
In terms of innovation, La Coop fédérée is involved in numerous projects, particularly through its participation in Cooperative Research Farms, the largest privately owned livestock and poultry research network in North America, as well as its own research farms. We are also involved in an ethanol fuel cell project and are partners in the fractionation of agricultural biomass molecules to manufacture bio-products.
Keeping within the framework of its commitment to sustainable development, La Coop fédérée has partnered with the Association québécoise pour la maîtrise de l’énergie and other major players in the Quebec economy. Together, we are working on implementing a cooperative to collect carbon credits and allow Canadian businesses who wish to take part in this upcoming new carbon economy to benefit from economies of scale.
This project is the result of the commitment of La Coop network leadership in response to the Quebec government’s pledge regarding climate change. The network is readying itself to seize any opportunity that may arise in a future carbon market, as well as educating and preparing La Coop network regarding climate change and energy efficiency.
As part of its “Chrysalide” project, La Coop network also invested in a comprehensive program to modernize its information technology infrastructure. In doing so, there is additional pressure on telecommunications firms to modernize their own networks and introduce the latest technologies in rural areas. We are currently living in a knowledge-based economy, and delays in updating and upgrading communication technology infrastructures in rural areas are a huge impediment to their development.
La Coop fédérée believes that concerted action on the part of all major economic players in these rural areas, in combination with a dynamic financial incentive policy from both governments, would be required to accelerate the deployment of high-speed Internet and digital telephony throughout all of these regions.
For our part, La Coop network will have invested almost $30 million to modernize its computer and communications infrastructure over a 5-year period. All of these actions and projects are proof of the commitment of La Coop fédérée and La Coop network to the sustainable development of rural and peri-urban communities.