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.
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
It's a lifetime membership.
Liberal
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
Yes. We don't have records of that, although people can apply—
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
How many members are you aware of who are members but are no longer alive?
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
For us to be aware that they were no longer alive, they would have to apply to have their share in the co-op put as part of their estate. So people can apply to get their capital out once they reach 75, or after they die.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
Do you advertise to recruit these 18,000 members? I know political parties in this country would love to recruit about 18,000 members a month.
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
If people go into the store and they want to buy a product, they need to buy a membership at that point, if they're not already members. That's how we get them.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
That's how it happened to me. I was in Winnipeg. It's not one of the activities you've listed. It was partying outdoors. I was attending Le Festival du Voyageur in minus 40 degree weather, drinking at midnight from an ice glass. I figured I needed to be better clothed, so I became a member. Thank you. It kept me warm all night.
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
I'm glad we had the products you needed.
Liberal
Mauril Bélanger Liberal Ottawa—Vanier, ON
We haven't asked this question of anyone so far. Is there any question you'd like us to ask that we haven't asked? Is there something you want to reveal to us, or have us thinking about, that we haven't asked?
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
I think beyond what we've presented to the committee, we don't have any further requests or questions.
Liberal
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Mountain Equipment Co-op
We're here to serve our members. So if we have more members, we will endeavour to serve them. And if you're not a member, we encourage the rest of you to come on in and check out our nice products.
Conservative
The Chair Conservative Blake Richards
Time has expired.
We're going to move now to Mr. Lemieux. You have five minutes.
Conservative
Pierre Lemieux Conservative Glengarry—Prescott—Russell, ON
Thank you very much, Chair.
Thank you for being here.
I have been a member of Mountain Equipment Co-op since the early days, the early 1980s—so way back when.
I want to follow up on a comment that Margie made about co-ops having difficulty accessing financing. We've been asking this question—I, in particular, have been asking this question—to a number of different witnesses, particularly financial institutions, a good number of which have been financial co-ops.
The impression I have is that there are always challenges in start-ups seeking financing but that the system and decisions are not biased against co-ops. In other words, there are always challenges. There are always high-risk ventures. There are always problems in terms of collateral for loans that financial institutions, including financial co-ops, can access.
We've had a number of people, on the other end, who say that it's hard to access financing and the system is biased against them. But then we've had financial institutions say there's no real bias; they do a risk assessment and they treat businesses like they treat co-ops.
There are a few unique challenges, but it didn't strike me as being very untoward, meaning that they had hurdles that couldn't be surmounted.
This brings me to Mountain Equipment Co-op.
Shona, you mentioned that you started in 1971 with six members and $65 in the bank account. I think you were saying today that you have $261 million in annual sales. That's a tremendous growth in the organization and impact on the ground. Tell us how you did that. Tell us how Mountain Equipment Co-op grew into what it is today. I think you might reveal to us, and to Canadians—because this is televised—the model of success. Could you fill us in?
Chief Governance Officer, Mountain Equipment Co-op
I'll defer to Margie, because I've only been working at Mountain Equipment Co-op for just over a month. She knows more of the history than I do.
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Mountain Equipment Co-op
There are a couple of things. One is that we did have help. We didn't have government help back then, but we had help from REI, in the States, which I believe provided products to us at wholesale prices so we could then offer them to Canadians.
Vice-Chair, Board of Directors, Mountain Equipment Co-op
Exactly.
Another thing is that the world was different in 1971. We have more challenges today. We have more competition today.
When we move into an area, our goal is not to wipe out the competition. Our goal is to inspire and enable everyone to live active outdoor lifestyles. The more people we have living happy outdoor lifestyles, the better. We want to add to a community. I think because we are a cooperative, the engagement levels are high and people believe that.
That's how we grew. It was very organic, and we did have some financial support.
When I was speaking earlier about support for small start-ups—again, we don't need the support—I've heard from the Canadian Co-operative Association and other smaller ones that access to capital can be challenging.
I know Vancity, for example, and some of the other cooperatives have it as part of their mission to support other cooperatives. But it may be more difficult from a traditional lending institution. We don't have the same ability to go out and raise funds through an IPO or something like that. That's where the challenge lies.