Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  In French, it is pronounced “Goussart” and in English it is “Goussard”.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Mr. Chairman and members of the special committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today. I compliment you for your efforts to review and explore the important role of cooperatives in this International Year of Cooperatives. My name is Ver

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Certainly, there are a lot of business development programs and things of that nature that co-ops can access. However, it's not commonly known that they are accessible to co-ops, and that's where I spoke about the vernacular. Co-ops are not included in the language of these progr

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes, absolutely.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Perhaps, yes.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There's a lot of opportunity within our economy to grow cooperative enterprises. Because of the track record of cooperatives—and we've seen their success rate—and the strength of the movement, we know it is a successful model that works in our economy. That being said, co-ops ta

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  As an organization?

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes. We've been running a cooperative youth leadership program since 1985. Historically, most of the youth who attend our program are from rural Manitoba. It's basically a leadership program, promoting leadership skills. We also teach, of course, about the cooperative model. But

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  This committee is a good start, in terms of it opening up the dialogue. It's important that our federal government hears from the cooperative sector and understands the needs of emerging co-ops. From my perspective, I mentioned a few things in my comments about ongoing support fo

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I would agree with that, but I'd also comment that in addition to having the business element of a co-op, there is the whole other piece around the governance.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  But business development, absolutely.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Certainly there are a number of educational institutions that do offer cooperative education. The relationship we've forged with the University of Winnipeg is with their faculty of business and economics. So it is within the business school. We've also established relations wit

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I don't work a lot with the francophone municipalities in Manitoba. Our partner, CDEM, does the work in the francophone communities. That being said, certainly some of the francophone co-ops do come to MCA for some of the grants that we administer in partnership with CDEM, and on

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  It is a non-profit cooperative housing project primarily being financed with help from the Province of Manitoba. I'm not up on all the details, because it is a bit of a moving target. But I believe that there is going to be a portion of mixed equity. Some will be equity units a

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  From the Manitoba Cooperative Association's perspective, we do have a very supportive and good relationship with our provincial government, as we've seen increased support for co-ops at the provincial level. That being said, it only came about because of the increased capacity th