Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Cooperatives are generally defined by their membership bases. In a consumer cooperative, basically the consumers are the members of the cooperative. They elect the board of directors, and the board of directors then manages on their behalf. Then there's the worker co-op. For in

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Basically a worker cooperative is an employee-owned enterprise that is democratically operated following the cooperative principles incorporated under the cooperative act.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  One of the first things you learn when you join any cooperative is that you're there based on responsibilities and obligations to the cooperative. Anybody in any kind of cooperative, whether it's a credit union or a worker cooperative, can be kicked out of the cooperative. So y

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Essentially what happens is that when you join the cooperative, you make an investment into the cooperative. Basically you do that with par-value shares. You then get your profits built up over the year, which are, I would note, taxed as earned income. Unlike a corporation, when

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There are not many in Canada.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I just want to make a comment as well. From the straight getting of a loan, the process is somewhat the same when the institution looks at the financials. One of the differences comes down to the fact that they're actually collective entrepreneurships, but bankers and credit uni

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes. I used to be on the board of Community Futures in Nova Scotia and on the local business development corporation. We did make some loans to cooperatives. I've forgotten what I was going to say.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  The point is that each Community Futures designs its own programs. Our Community Futures didn't provide any grants to anybody. There were no grants whatsoever for anybody. In our Community Futures, if you wanted to, you could borrow money from us. But there were no grants being p

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  I think what you're alluding to, perhaps, is that if the workers had some sort of rights within that context, then they could actually look at the worker co-op as an opportunity. I think that legislative changes relating to workers having more rights within those kind of bankrupt

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  There are a number of reasons. Basically, initially, you're not starting with a large corporation with a capital base. If we're talking about buying a significant enterprise from the beginning, that's who buys them. If you're on the financial end of things, you suddenly have a gr

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  One of the things that a number of us at the table here have emphasized is the need for supports in the development of cooperatives. A key person in that development is somebody who has the background, skills, and knowledge of how to do that. One thing we've done, through the sup

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  The Careforce Home Care Worker Co-operative is a good example of the potential in rural areas for worker co-op successions. This small business provides market-based home health-care services in the Annapolis Valley region of Nova Scotia. At the time the owner decided to look a

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you. One of the key differences between cooperatives and conventional corporations is the role of capital within the enterprises. In a simplistic but accurate description, in a cooperative the capital serves an instrumental function. It is one of the many tools required to

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Under most cooperative acts, and in conformity with the cooperative principles, capital receives a limited financial return. Most shares have a par value, that is, the value of the share is the same on the date of purchase and on the date of redemption. So there is no potential f