Mr. Speaker, 2012 is the UN's International Year of Cooperatives. This is a global acknowledgement that co-operatives drive the economy, respond to social change, are resilient to global economic crisis and are serious, successful businesses creating jobs in all sectors.
The reason for their success is that they are fundamentally different from other businesses. Co-ops and credit unions use the one member, one vote system, not the one-vote-per-share system used by corporations. As a result, co-ops and credits unions serve the common need of their members, as opposed to just the need of their largest shareholders. People, not capital, control the organization.
This model has ensured that co-ops succeed at a higher rate than the private sector, without relocating jobs offshore. There is indeed much to celebrate when it comes to Canadian co-operatives.
That is especially true in my riding of Hamilton Mountain, where the Halam Park Housing Co-op just received the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada's inaugural Award for Co-operative Achievement. Halam Park is adding much-needed units to Hamilton's housing stock. In doing so, it is providing more than the just the bricks and mortar of shelter; it is offering stability, security and dignity to even more Hamiltonians.
Congratulations, Halam Park, for proving the UN right: co-operative enterprises build a better world.