Evidence of meeting #6 for Special Committee on Cooperatives in the 41st Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was co-ops.
A video is available from Parliament.
Liberal
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
No, no. My wife received substantially less than that.
Anyway, I'm very grateful to helping out our cause.
Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
Thank you for pointing that out. I appreciate that.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Okay.
There's a big business in the retail side. I know you talked about urban stores versus rural stores. I'm wondering what kind of mix you have there, in terms of percentage. What's the greater proportion? Is it urban or rural?
Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
It depends on our business line, of course. In food, I'd say that about 35% of our total food business at the retail level is in what we would consider our urban--maybe a bit more than that, about 40%—and then the remainder is divided among mid-sized and smaller communities across the west.
With regard to petroleum, I don't have that number in mind, to be honest. It's proportionate, because we sell an awful lot of our petroleum, as Mr. Tully indicated, in rural areas to support the actual operations at our bulk plants and cardlocks for commercial trucking.
I don't have the number off the top of my head. I can get that to you, if you like.
Conservative
Vice-President, Corporate Affairs, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
You see a lot of our trucks on the highway.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Mr. Morrison, I believe you've been before the aboriginal affairs committee—I've been on that committee, and I continue to be on that committee—so welcome back in a different role.
I believe we did hear from you in regard to Nutrition North, and that program was just being rolled out. I'm wondering how that program has impacted the Arctic co-ops, particularly across the north.
Chief Executive Officer, Arctic Co-operatives Limited
Yes, I did appear before the aboriginal affairs committee. I thank you for remembering that.
The program has rolled out. We believe the program is a success. There have been some growing pains with the new program, but the old program was broken. The efforts of the government to develop a new program in consultation with industry people we believe provides better quality, more timely delivery, and better-priced perishable and nutritious foods to the people of the Arctic.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
That's really positive to hear. I thank you for that.
Do you continue to provide input to the group that is reviewing all of those suggestions that may still need some tweaking?
Chief Executive Officer, Arctic Co-operatives Limited
Yes, we do. There's an advisory committee that oversees the program. We appeared a couple of months ago before the advisory committee, providing additional input on how the program should operate.
Conservative
LaVar Payne Conservative Medicine Hat, AB
Okay.
I think you did touch a bit on this, and I thank my colleague on the other side for talking about the funding that was put together in terms of the Arctic Co-operative Development Fund. Do you know how much was originally given by each of the organizations, the federal government and the territories and so on?
Chief Executive Officer, Arctic Co-operatives Limited
There was $10.2 million in capital that was provided. There was $5 million in new cash that was provided by Industry Canada under the native economic development program; $4.9 million was the conversion of existing debt from Indian and Northern Affairs Canada from the Eskimo loan fund, and $300,000 was from the Government of the Northwest Territories.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blake Richards
Thank you very much.
We'll now move to Mr. Harris. You have five minutes.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
Great. Thank you very much.
Mr. Tully, you mentioned that you're in 500 communities in the areas you serve. Approximately what percentage of those businesses provide the flagship business in those communities? I don't expect an exact number.
President of the Board, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
I would say it's the majority. We want to be the first business in each of the communities we operate in. Obviously, for competition you're either one or two in most of those communities, and we try to be number one.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
Okay. So if you weren't there, there'd probably be a lot of struggles and additional challenges in those communities for people to get the kinds of services they need.
President of the Board, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
Interestingly, in our model we also wholly own another subsidiary, The Grocery People, which provides goods and services to independents. In many of those communities, Federated Co-operative is supplying the total food input into that community, both at the independent store and the co-op store. It would be their only access to that wholesale; they cannot achieve purchasing from other wholesalers in those communities.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
Otherwise you're talking about a lot more than a couple of hours by car, for most of that.
President of the Board, Home Office, Federated Co-operatives Limited
Correct, yes.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
Mr. Morrison, you're the only witness I'm probably going to say this to, but I wish we had a lot more time with you. And that's not a reflection of the other witnesses, who have all been phenomenal, but you're representing an area that has way more additional challenges than even the rural and urban cooperatives do, and you're one of the only representatives, if not the only representative, from the territories who we're going to see. So thank you for coming and for all the information you've shared already.
But it was also the particular insight you might be able to provide in your advisory capacity with the CDI that I'm interested in and wanted to ask you about. Have you found that program to be a success in the north at helping to get new cooperatives started?
Chief Executive Officer, Arctic Co-operatives Limited
I believe it has been. As I indicated, we are an advisory services partner under the co-op development initiative, and we have been working with groups, and not just in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut but in parts of the northern provinces and the Yukon, in the development of cooperatives. With the development of a cooperative, you can't parachute a cooperative into a community; it has to grow from the ground up. So the efforts of the CDI program have enabled us to use our expertise to work with primarily aboriginal communities, which I think has been very beneficial.
NDP
Dan Harris NDP Scarborough Southwest, ON
Is it a program you would have liked to have seen continued?
