Partners hope new fund will stimulate co-operatives in Indigenous communities
- Fraser Needham | January 28, 2016
Various partners hope a new $5 million dollar fund will help get co-operatives off the ground in Western Canadian Aboriginal communities.
The fund is being provided as part of the Co-operative Innovation Project.
It will be distributed over five years.
University of Saskatchewan Professor Murray Fulton says Aboriginal communities can face unique challenges in terms of starting up co-operatives.
“The knowledge of co-ops in Aboriginal communities is substantially less than the rest of rural and Western Canada and there will be a significant effort needed to get that knowledge of co-ops out there,” he says.
Fulton adds setting up a co-operative in an Aboriginal community can take longer than in a non-Aboriginal community.
“For us from the outside coming in, we need to go through a lengthy set of protocols and getting to know the people in the community and getting their trust. This is key work that has to be done and it cannot be rushed.”
Over the past year the research project has contacted 37 per cent of the rural and Aboriginal communities in Western Canada.
It found that 23 per cent of rural respondents and 41 per cent of Aboriginal respondents said they do not know what a co-operative is.
The five-year Co-operatives First Fund is intended to help with the various costs of getting a co-operative off the ground such as attaining the necessary legal and professional services, developing communications and business plans and conducting feasibility studies.
The research also shows co-operatives could potentially help fill gaps in such areas as health care, housing, industry and business development.
Plans are under way for Co-operatives First to host Community Inspire meetings across Western Canada over the next few years.
Partners in the Co-operative Innovation Project include Federated Co-operatives Limited, University of Saskatchewan and the Plunkett Foundation.