Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair and committee members. I appear before you today on behalf of the Prince Edward Island Co-operative Council, representing 108 island cooperatives and their 80,000 members. Fully 60% of the population of Prince Edward Island belongs to a cooperative. On Prin

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you. I can speak only of the island right now, but I can tell you from the experience of our most recent start-up, which is a farmers' market—which are becoming popular today because of the local produce and the healthier eating—it was a little difficult getting it going,

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There aren't the same programs there, and Dianne will have a better understanding and can explain that better. But for us on the island, you have to appreciate that in the smaller communities it's not young people who are living there. Young people are no longer living in the sma

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I can tell you that I've had some conversations with them that have not led to anything substantial. I think they're going through some changes right now that have created some internal problems for them. We wanted to get a project going with our Chinese immigrant community, a

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I have no knowledge.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  What we've found is that it's not just government. When we were doing the community economic initiative funding, we had to go out and basically teach the program or explain it all to the accountants, who were advising the businesses, which were a little skeptical about it. So it'

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I can tell you, because I just met with them yesterday, that one funeral co-op is not giving a dividend. It's going back into the business, because they've just invested in a $300,000 addition. If you've been involved with a funeral, as I have, in the last couple of years, you wo

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  When co-ops first got going, people didn't know anything about them. When the movement started in Antigonish with Moses Coady, people didn't know anything about it. He went out and taught them. He brought it over to the island even. You've just got to know your history. If you

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  If I might add, there comes a time in some industries when you have to get bigger or you're going to be run out of the business. The dairy industry on the island was a prime example. ADL is a combination of co-ops that merged, if you will. It's a little bit of a modified co-op, i

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  If I might say, cooperative development is more than just starting up a new cooperative. There are some existing cooperatives, and as we get into the community economic initiatives, you have to form boards for them. Today, ordinary people are reluctant to sit on a board of dire

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No, it doesn't fall on government, but government could help out. That's all I'm saying. We can deliver it. Back in the early 1900s, you couldn't give away P.E.I. eggs. It was the government that came in and helped out with regulations and inspections, which turned that product

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes, but it's not to the same extent.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There is a role for government, but it doesn't necessarily mean that you just shovel in a bunch of cash. There are groups there that can do it very economically. They just need a little bit of assistance to impart this knowledge to these people. I'll tell you quite frankly, beca

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think, on Dianne's point, the government agencies have to have the door open if we go to them. It's not just on this. When the security regulations came in in 2004, there was a complete disconnect between Transport Canada and the border service agencies. I know that there was a

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  You're asking us to comment on an issue that's been around since Confederation started. There is no equality between the provinces, and it's not for us to tell this committee or the federal government where you should be separating the two, or what one government should do more