As a diverse nation of innovators, Canadians have a lot of potential to propel ourselves towards an equitable and sustainable recovery from COVID-19. That said, we still face some serious challenges. If we want better social, economic and environmental outcomes, the government needs to ‘do different,’ by rethinking the way social purpose organizations are supported. We need investment in social innovation and social finance.
In 2018, the Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy Co-Creation Steering Group released its report, Inclusive Innovation: New Ideas and New Partnerships for Stronger Communities. This comprehensive report contains 12 key recommendations that would help communities tackle their toughest social and environmental challenges through skill development, unlocking private capital, increasing market access, and regulatory changes. In other words – it would be a game changer!
Unblock Social Innovation, Empower Communities
The federal government has committed to developing a Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy (SISF Strategy) and, in 2018, announced a $755M Social Finance Fund and $50M Investment Readiness Program. BUT, the Social Finance Fund has yet to be rolled out; after a very successful 2-year pilot, the Investment Readiness Program is set to expire in March 2021; and there has been little action on the remaining recommendations.
We have a window of opportunity to push the government to implement a comprehensive strategy, expand the Investment Readiness Program, and accelerate the Social Finance Fund. Over the spring and summer, several mobilizing efforts, including by the People-Centred Economy Group, Impact Response, the National Impact Investment Practitioners table, and others, have urged the federal government to accelerate SISF as part of COVID recovery. This is a critical moment for a concerted push for continued action by the federal government to ensure that SISF is part of budget 2021.
CALL TO ACTION
There are two options for action. The first will have more of an impact in this campaign and will help you build a long-term relationship with your MP.
Option 1: High Impact
Set up a virtual meeting or phone call with your MP.
Share these key messages with them and ask them to write to Minister Hussen and Minister Freeland asking for Social Enterprise, Social Innovation, and Social Finance to be central features in the Government of Canada’s post-COVID economic recovery.
The Canadian Community Economic Development Network is excited to invite organizational members to apply to become host organizations through the CreateAction: Inclusive Social Innovation program. Not already a member? Check out how you can join the network (including barrier-free options) by visiting CCEDNet’s membership page.
About CreateAction
The purpose of CreateAction is to provide employment and career-relevant learning opportunities to young people not in education, employment or training (NEET) and facing barriers to employment to further their career in community economic development and the social economy. These placements will take place under the terms and conditions of a contribution agreement between the Canadian CED Network and Employment and Social Development Canada as part of the Youth Employment and Skills Strategy.
commitment and organizational capacity to assist youth participants with their daily work, providing coaching and career development support;
geographic diversity (e.g. rural, remote, Indigenous, northern, francophone communities outside of Quebec, and urban disadvantaged communities with recent immigrant populations);
demonstrated ability to recruit and host people who are Indigenous, Black, racialized, LGBTQ2S+, newcomers to Canada, francophone, and/or live with disability;
commitment to participate in a peer support network of host organizations;
dedication to leveraging the work experience into full-time employment or study for the youth participant;
ability to recruit youth participants not in employment, education or training (NEET);
ability to recruit youth participants from diverse backgrounds with barriers to employment;
capacity to adequately support skills development for participants, with additional support from the CreateAction partners;
willingness to increase organizational capacity to accommodate needs of youth facing barriers.
Host organizations will:
offer a meaningful 26-week employment opportunity;
actively seek out participant candidates from diverse backgrounds with barriers to employment;
become a member of the Canadian CED Network, if not already a member;
provide participants with an orientation to the host organization;
develop, at the beginning of the placement, a Learning Plan with participants;
develop and implement a plan to provide sufficient support services to enable the participant to succeed at their placement;
provide sufficient resources and time to effectively supervise and mentor work experience participants;
commit to weekly meetings with participants to support their learning objectives;
set aside a minimum of:
six (6) hours per week for the work experience participant to participate in peer learning activities, including those organized by the Canadian CED Network;
1.5hrs per month to participate in national virtual participant learning sessions; and
three (3) working days for the participant to participate in an in-person or online learning event.
provide, with support from the CreateAction program, career advice, regular feedback and guidance to participants and assist participants in laddering into further career relevant employment or education at the end of the placement;
provide participants with all reasonably required working materials;
provide the Canadian CED Network with periodic progress reports and report on outcomes at the end of the work experience;
participate in three (3) host organisation national virtual sessions with the Canadian CED Network and other selected organisations;
work with the CreateAction program evaluators on evaluation related activities, such as activities involved with midterm and final evaluations;
identify candidates by December 21, in order for work experience participants to start placements on January 11.
CreateAction partners (CCEDNet, NAFC and SRDC) will:
directly cover employment costs for work experience participants;
assist host organizations with the necessary advice and support to carry out the activities and realize the objectives of the program;
provide, in concert with host organizations, tailored wraparound supports for youth participants;
oversee the peer learning and mentoring program;
complete skills assessments for each participant;
coordinate monthly video conference calls for youth participants to learn, share experiences, and to network;
coordinate three (3) video conference calls for host organizations to share experiences and to network;
contribute ongoing career coaching and employment related support to the participants;
provide, with support from host organizations, career advice, regular feedback and guidance to participants and assist participants in laddering into further career relevant employment or education at the end of the placement;
conduct mid-term evaluations and exit surveys with participants and host organizations to monitor progress, track participant learning, and capture participant outcomes, career expectations and satisfaction.
To participate in the CreateAction program, eligible youth must be:
between 15 and 30 years of age (inclusive) at start of placement;
Canadian citizens, permanent residents, or protected persons as defined by the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act;
legally entitled to work in Canada;
legally entitled to work according to the relevant provincial/territorial legislation and regulations;
experiencing one or more barriers to employment and/or not in education, employment, or training (NEET);
a first-time participant in a Youth Employment and Skills Strategy placement.
If you require an offline application please contact Matthew Thompson at the coordinates below. Deadline for host organizations to submit an application is November 17, 2020, 12pm Eastern Time.
The Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) and the National Association of Friendship Centres (NAFC) are pleased to announce their partnership for the 10th incarnation of the CreateAction program.Funded by Employment and Social Development Canada, with evaluation support from the Social Research and Demonstration Corporation, CCEDNet and NAFC will work in collaboration with host organizations across the country to provide youth experiencing barriers to employment with a relevant, peer-supported, paid work experience placement.Over the course of the next three years, community-based organizations and provincial-territorial associations from both networks will be recruited to host a total of 100 work experience participants for the equivalent of 26-week paid work experience placements.The first cohort of 25 participants will take part in work experience placements starting January 11, 2021, with Host Organizations for the first cohort determined by the end of November. The second cohort of 25 participants will take part in work experience placements starting June 21, 2021, with Host Organizations for the second cohort determined by the end of April.
How does CreateAction work?
As project partners, NAFC and CCEDNet will select host organizations, who in turn will hire youth participants according to job-specific placements. Host organizations will be supported by the project partners with wrap-around supports and peer mentorship to facilitate high quality work experience placements for youth.Eligible work experience placements will provide young people facing barriers to employment with meaningful jobs in the community, support employment skills development, and create opportunities for youth to build their capacity. Click here here for examples of placements.
About NAFC
The National Association of Friendship Centres is a network of over 100 Friendship Centres and Provincial/Territorial Associations from coast-to-coast-to-coast.The Friendship Centre Movement is the country’s most significant off-reserve Indigenous service delivery infrastructure. For over half a century Friendship Centres have helped urban Indigenous people access the vital services they need to succeed in urban settings across Canada. Friendship Centres understand the challenges facing our communities and their unique “wrap-around” service delivery model ensures we are well equipped to tackle them.Across the country, Friendship Centres provide culturally appropriate services for Indigenous people living in urban centres and have become a place for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to come together, to share traditions and to learn from one another.
About CCEDNet
The Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet) is a national member-led organization committed to strengthening Canadian communities by creating economic opportunities that enhance social and environmental conditions.Community Economic Development (CED) is action by people locally to create economic opportunities that improve social conditions, particularly for those who are most disadvantaged. CED is an approach that recognizes that economic, environmental and social challenges are interdependent, complex and ever-changing.To be effective, solutions must be rooted in local knowledge and led by community members. CED promotes holistic approaches, addressing individual, community and regional levels, recognizing that these levels are interconnected.
According to the United Nations, UNDRIP is the most comprehensive international instrument on the rights of Indigenous peoples. It establishes a universal framework of minimum standards for the survival, dignity, and well-being of the Indigenous peoples of the world and it elaborates on existing human rights standards and fundamental freedoms as they apply to the specific situation of Indigenous peoples.
The Investment Readiness Program helps social enterprises to design, measure, and scale in order to get ready to accept investments. If you are a:
Charity
Non-profit
Co-op
Social enterprise
For-profit social enterprise
You could be eligible for between $10,000 – $100,000 in non-repayable funds to grow your social enterprise project.
Several IRP partners are currently inviting social purpose organizations to apply for funding. Find out if your organization is eligible and more details on how you can apply.
Community Foundations of Canada – applications for second and final round of funding are open from September 8, 2020 until October 9, 2020
Ten days ago, Juan Tellez was charged with sedition, terrorism and crimes against public health in Bolivia.
I first met Juan 20 years ago in the early days of CCEDNet. He hosted CCEDNet’s first national conference in Halifax, and was the first Chair of CCEDNet’s Membership Committee. I too remember the enthusiasm and passion he brought to our endeavours that this article from the New Brunswick Media Co-op describes among his students at St. Mary’s University.
The situation in Bolivia is worrying. Reports (see links below) document a surge of human rights violations since last fall’s disputed Presidential elections. Charges of terrorism and sedition are reportedly being laid for people walking through the wrong neighbourhood and having flyers in a backpack.
It made me wonder how Juan became a political target. In the past, one of his proudest accomplishments was bringing electricity to his rural village. Could community economic development represent a threatening political agenda to some? Is CED a political activity?
Being a charity, in the past CCEDNet has had to be careful about political activities. Fortunately, following a 2018 court ruling (thanks Canada Without Poverty!!!), the old 10% limit on a charity’s allowed political activities was eliminated. There are still prohibited activities (we must remain non-partisan) but there are now no limits to how much of our resources we can spend on calls to action and campaigns. Which is good, because CCEDNet and some leading members have recently expanded our investment in this work.
We’ve also become more explicit in our support for broader social justice movements. Standing up for Black Lives, the rights of First Nations, Métis and Inuit, and all people with barriers to full participation in society – this is core to CCEDNet’s vision of communities directing their own social, economic and environmental futures.
A year ago, as part of centenary celebrations of the International Labour Organization, I wrote a blog about the historic connections between the labour movement, human rights, the co-operative and credit union movements and CED. The roots of all of these are in organizing towards greater economic democracy. Standing up for human rights. And recognizing that in fact human rights themselves are inadequate – we still need what Franklin Delano Roosevelt proposed 75 years ago: economic rights.
Strengthening the role of government in making sure everyone has equal access to those rights can be effective, but relying entirely on government is risky. It was the failings of distant and ineffective government policy in times and places of economic dislocation that prompted community leaders to decide to take economic matters into their own hands, and embark on a co-operative and CED agenda. Communities know what’s best for themselves. Empowering communities builds resiliency (as we see in the survival rates of co-ops), makes for happier places to work, and contributes to health and well-being. Distributing democratic practice and mutuality in a plural economy (as Henry Mintzberg calls it) solves problems that are too complex for government alone.
Since March, we’ve been reminded of the importance of labour and decent work, and we’ve seen firsthand how government can act to create a workable social safety net when it’s needed. Current references to a bold, green and equitable recovery offer the promise of a renewed vision for our frayed social contract, and a refocus on those for whom it was broken from the start.
So to answer the question above, yes, at its best, CED is both practical and political. Like bringing clean drinking water and green energy to First Nations. Like creating a social finance intermediary to invest in Black-led social enterprises. Or bringing electricity to a remote Bolivian village.
Juan understood this long ago, and his courage and dedication have made him a target. If you want to help make sure he is okay send an email to to stay up to date and contribute if or when the family asks for help.
And for the second year in a row, enjoy your Labour Day weekend, with a thought to those whose efforts and sacrifice have made it possible, and those who still today are denied their essential human rights here in Canada, too.
On July 28, the community economic development movement lost an elder.
Dr. John Loxley was a scholar, teacher, activist, mentor, and friend to many. His vision of a world in which sustainable, inclusive communities direct their own futures is at the core of CCEDNet’s work. And by nurturing a collective belief in this vision – among students, organizers, community members, and policy makers – John helped advance CED across Manitoba and around the world.
We asked a few people who knew John to reflect on his impact on CED, CCEDNet, and beyond.
Dr. Shauna MacKinnon remembers John for his “quiet, humble leadership,” which serves as a “good reminder that we need to have more humility and not put ourselves out there as ‘the experts’ — and to [instead] recognize the strength that other people bring.”
Shauna also spoke about the importance of recognizing John’s foundational contributions to the world of CED. “He gave [CED] a sound theoretical framework… There’s absolutely no doubt that the person who has led CED in [Manitoba] is John Loxley. All you have to do is look at the work he did in the seventies about developing the Great Northern Plan, which is basically the theory behind CED.”
Blair Hamilton, Program Manager for the Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, said that “John was an example of an organic intellectual. A guy from the working class who achieved academic and theoretical excellence but remained connected to his roots, which is rare… [He] was instrumental in building the bridge between academia and the community in Manitoba. This bridge is a defining feature of CED in Manitoba.”
Former CCEDNet executive director Garry Loewen echoed the importance of John’s role as a community-minded intellectual in creating the foundation for CED in Manitoba: “[John’s] biggest impact was as a thought leader. John had conceptualized CED a fair bit before we as practitioners turned into a movement of projects.”
Garry also spoke to the vitality of John’s role as bridge-builder between the academy and the community, and how John brought the values of CED alive for thousands of students. And he explained that John’s legacy includes “the resources that got made available to the sector here in Manitoba through his work with the provincial government. A lot of the [CED] stuff that’s happening on the ground is because of the role he played in making those resources available.”
Brendan Reimer, partner at Assiniboine Credit Union, said that “as a person, [John] was incredibly principled. He knew the kind of world he was trying to build, he knew what his values were and what he thought a just society would look like. He was incredibly determined through all aspects of his to help us get there — whether that was through his research, teaching, activism, or by going out and starting a community co-op.”
Early in his career, Brendan took a job with CCEDNet. The work was challenging and he felt in over his head. In one of his first meetings, he found himself at a table surrounded by the “intellectual and community leadership giants” of CED — John being one of them. Even though Brendan considered himself to be a “newbie student,” John consistently turned to him during the meeting to ask, “Brendan, what do you think?” To be included in this way meant a lot to Brendan, and it reflected John’s approach to “creating space for both the lived experience of the community and also people who were new” to the work. “That was how he helped build the movement.”
According to Brendan, John “would challenge you with a smile on his face. Just with a little quip or a little smirk. And you’d get a glimpse behind the curtain, that this guy is smart as hell, eternally committed to social and economic justice, and there’s something in that smile that made you think, ‘this is the kind of guy I want to learn from.’”
Thank you, John, for a legacy of community and compassion. We extend our sincere condolences to John’s loved ones.
There were two key take-aways for civil society organizations from the meeting. The first is the importance of taking a cross-government approach when advocating for issues that span multiple departments. Many of our sector’s policy priorities, like the implementation of the SI/SF, don’t fall neatly into just one department. In order to build political will and momentum around the cabinet table, it is important to be talking to all Ministers involved in a particular issue, as well as their staff. The second take-away is that there are still myths associate with investments in social enterprise, both within and outside government. In order to advance our shared agenda, it is important for these myths to be addressed and dispelled.
CCEDNet will continue working with members and partners to advance policy priorities for an inclusive and sustainable recovery. If you’d like to find out more, contact our Government Relations Director, Raissa Marks at r.marks at ccednet-rcdec.ca
At the last meeting of CCEDNet’s Board of Directors, Victor Beausoleil was selected as the new President of the Board. He takes over from Laurie Cook, who had been President since 2018.
Victor is the President + CEO of Intuit Consulting and the founder of SETSI – The Social Economy Through Social Inclusion Coalition. Victor has worked diligently in the broader equity seeking communities across Canada for the past fifteen years. As a lecturer, Victor has travelled extensively throughout Canada, the United States and Africa. Victor has been a board member of numerous foundations and organizations, including Atkinson Charitable Foundation, The Harriet Tubman Community Organization, and the Toronto Community Benefits Network. Read Victor’s full bio.
The Board extends its warm appreciation to Laurie Cook for her leadership over the last two years.
If you also submitted a brief we’d love to include it below…
Please send your pre-budget submission to Ben Losman at b.losman at ccednet-rcdec.ca.
Our Recommendations for the 2021 Federal Budget
1. Accelerate Social Innovation and Social Finance
a.
Produce a Social Innovation and Social Finance Strategy implementing all 12 recommendations of the Co-Creation steering group.
b.
Ensure equity seeking groups play a leading role in the implementation and subsequent evolution of the SISF strategy to build on existing local capacity and strengthen the expertise of the community economic development, non-profit, and co-operative sectors.
2. Support Resilient Local Enterprises
a.
Promote local and social procurement policies.
b.
Enable employee and community-based ownership succession and buyouts.
c.
Establish a national program to grow community investment funds in each province.
3. Build Economies for All
a.
Advance the decent work agenda to support good quality jobs and workers’ rights and well- being.
b.
Improve the efficacy of Labour Market and Workforce Development dollars to reach vulnerable groups seeking workplace skills and training, and ensure that an increased percentage of LMTA funding is directed at vulnerable groups.
c.
Accelerate the timeline of the Universal Broadband Fund, and use it to encourage community-owned broadband.
The Governance Group is a key vehicle for community ownership of the Common Approach. For the Common Approach to be successful in establishing a flexible standard of impact measurement in Canada for the benefit of social-purpose organizations and others, it is important that there is an active and engaged community of folks overseeing the evolution and refinement of the standard. Successful standards are the community behind them.
This is an exciting time to join the Common Approach, and the new Governance Group is a great way to get involved. First-term members will:
Draw on good governance experience of fiscal oversight, ethics, and risk management
Develop the Strategic Planning Framework for the Common Approach
Oversee the adoption strategy and identify pathways for engagement with other stakeholders and social purpose organizations across Canada
Provide oversight of the four standards that include: The Common Foundations, Common Form, the Common Framework, and the Common Impact Data Standard
Support partner and funding development to ensure that the Common Approach can meet its potential
The Common Approach will hold a Q & A webinar on Tuesday, September 8 at 2:00 pm ET to answer any and all questions you might have about the governance model and the call.
Interested, or know someone who might be? To apply, send a resumé and a letter that expresses your interest in the Governance Group for the Common Approach to Impact Measurement to Joanna Reynolds: joanna (at) socialinnovation.ca
CCEDNet member Roger Peters is an engineer and policy analyst with over 40 years experience in co-operatives, clean energy, and local economic development. He is a founding member of the Ottawa Renewable Energy and CoEnergy Ontario Co-operatives.
The virtual shut down of the World’s economies as a result of COVID-19 has exposed their fragility and accentuated their inequality. Our current reliance on conventional business models is not working. As we re-build, we should not bail out large corporations, but rather create more resilient and equitable local economies.
COVID-19 has also shown us how much we rely on the supply of goods and services from outside our community. The world economy has become precarious too – products we buy usually contain parts made in many different countries. This may have been more efficient for corporations in pre-COVID 19 times, but it is not resilient enough in a world that will see more pandemics and changing climate. Local communities need to have more say in what is made in their economy and how the rewards are shared. Municipalities must be able to influence local job creation and ownership through their procurement and urban development policies.
Worker or employee co-operatives have existed for many years and have been shown to be more resilient than conventional businesses in times of crisis. The reason for this is that in a worker co-operative everyone has a financial stake in the enterprise, shares in its success, and equitably manages its failures. It is rooted in the community. In a conventional business, employees are an expense and profits for investors are paramount.
The time is also right for rebuilding a more democratic business model. Many small business owners may not want or be able to restart their businesses after COVID 19. Many baby boomers who own businesses are ready to retire (the so called “silver tsunami”). There is a real interest and opportunity to save these companies by selling them to those who work for them. Many Canadians are also wanting to have more say in their work lives.
Cities are taking control of their economies
Cities around the world have started to see local procurement and worker co-operatives as keys to more permanent and equitable economic development, taking things into their own hands rather than relying on outside investment to provide jobs.
In 2008, the City of Cleveland joined with several other local “anchor” institutions (including the Cleveland Foundation, the Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, and Case Western Reserve University) to found the Evergreen Cooperative Initiative to create living-wage jobs in six low-income neighborhoods. The initiative focuses on building a local economy from the ground up rather than a trickle-down strategy from outside investment.
The anchor institutions agreed to use their significant procurement power to purchase more goods and services locally. This both keeps money in the community and builds secure good quality local jobs. The Evergreen Co-operative Initiative supports new employee owned worker co-operatives and acquires and converts conventional business into worker co-ops that can provide the goods and services required by the anchors. Evergreen Co-operatives now employ more than 250 people at three core businesses: an industrial laundry, an urban greenhouse, and an energy-efficiency contractor. A Fund for Employee Ownership has been set up to help acquire businesses that wish to convert to a worker co-operative and to help to develop new co-ops – particularly small businesses owned by “baby boomers” wishing to retire.
Over in Preston, UK, the local council was faced with a dilemma when a large development project in the centre of the city fell through in 2011. Following Cleveland’s example, they persuaded the local university and other anchor institutions to begin procuring goods and services from local sources. Using what is now called “the Preston Model” in just 5 years Preston has become the most improved city in the UK according to the Good Growth Index.
They also set up The Preston Co-operative Development Network (PCDN) to develop and support local employee owned enterprises which was modelled on the very successful support network for employee owned producer co-operatives in Mondragon, Spain.
Rather than acquiring business like Evergreen, the PDCN assists conventional business convert to independent employee co-operatives and helps to establish new ones to fill the gaps in anchor institution procurement needs. Like Mondragon, the network includes several key support functions – education (training of potential co-op employees), R&D (to identify new opportunities), and financial (to finance co-op conversion and development).
Other cities are following Cleveland’s and Preston’s lead.
Promoting and supporting local procurement and employee ownership through the Cleveland and Preston models are key elements of what is known as Community Wealth Building. This new model of democratic economic development seeks to give local institutions and citizens more control over their economy and workplaces and keep more of the generated wealth in the community. This means supporting, for example, municipal ownership of services, social procurement strategies, land trusts for affordable housing, worker co-operatives, credit unions, and local training and apprenticeships. As well as using direct support, some cities are requiring that new developments meet certain targets for community wealth building through Community Benefit Agreements.
The term social procurement refers to procurement from social enterprises, which are defined as those that have an embedded mission to achieve social, cultural or environmental aims and use at least 50% of profits to further this mission. Cities are beginning to incorporate social procurement into their overall procurement strategies.
Legislation Supporting Employee Ownership
Several EU countries, including Spain, Italy and France have “right to own” legislation which gives employees the first opportunity to buy out a company when the current owner wishes to sell or has to sell because of financial problems. Italy also has a comprehensive legal structure for employee owned enterprises that allows for multi-stakeholder membership drawn from two or more “stakeholder” members including consumers, producers, investors, and community supporters. This allows multi-stakeholder co-operative enterprises (also known as solidarity co-ops) to take on a much wider range of businesses, and allow all citizens to participate in a democratic economy.
Quebec has led the way in North America creating a comprehensive structure for multi-stakeholder co-operatives through the Quebec Co-operatives Act which includes worker co-operatives, worker shareholder co-operatives, and solidarity or multi-stakeholder co-operatives consisting of employee, user/customers, or “supporters”.
Through the advocacy of the Illinois Coalition for Cooperative Advancement, in 2019 the State of Illinois passed the Limited Worker Co-operative Association Act. This creates a new structure for employee owned and multi-stakeholder co-operatives in which employees own greater than 51% of the shares. It creates more visibility and financing options for worker co-operatives.
Community Financing of Employee Ownership
Millions of people around the world have retirement savings invested in conventional financial institutions and stock markets. There is a real desire for these savings to be invested in more specific green and community ventures as long as people still obtain a reasonable return. With the multi-stakeholder co-operative legal structures described above, this huge pool of capital could help to finance employee ownership of new businesses and start-ups.
Local Investing YYC is a Calgary based co-operative that pools member capital and invests it on their behalf in local enterprises in Alberta and Western Canada. The Ottawa Renewable Energy Cooperative (OREC) is a renewable energy co-operative in Ontario that uses member capital to purchase or build medium scale solar power systems, and sells this power to the grid or to building owners under long term contracts. OREC already has over $8 million of assets. In 2019, OREC set up CoEnergy Ontario Co-operative – a multi-stakeholder co-operative to finance energy retrofit and other clean energy projects. CoEnergy has two classes of members – community members who invest and consumer members who use the co-op’s services.
Investment shares in both Local Investing YYC and OREC/CoEnergy are RRSP and TFASA eligible so that members can simply transfer retirement funds from their existing RRSP as well as add each year.
While neither Local Investing YYC or OREC/CoEnergy currently invest in employee owned enterprises or include employee members, the model could easily embrace this. It would open the flood gates for ordinary citizens to finance the building of a more resilient local economy.
Political Support for Employee and Community Ownership is Growing
In 2017, the United Kingdom Labour Party commissioned a report to look at “Alternative Models of Ownership” reviewing the options to support worker co-operatives, municipal led economic development, and local public ownership. The New Economics Foundation prepared “Co-operatives Unleashed” for Labour proposing several policies that would increase employee ownership as well as community wealth building in the UK, including using the Preston Model and “right to own” legislation.
In the United States, the New Economy Coalition through their Pathways to a Peoples Economy Project have laid out a series of policies such as “right to own” that would support and ramp up worker ownership. The Democracy Collaborative has started an initiative called Fifty by Fifty whose goal is to catalyze a movement with the knowledge, resources, and skills to grow the number of employee owners in the U.S.
In Canada, the NDP’s Charlie Angus has proposed policies that would give workers the legal right of first refusal to purchase a closing business and restructure it as a worker co-operative, as well as harmonize worker co-operative legislation regulation across provinces.
The Canadian Worker Co-operatives Federation is proposing four actions that would help multi-stakeholder co-operatives lead the way in rebuilding the economy post COVID-19 – a long term patient capital fund to support the development of new co-ops; technical assistance to small and medium scale businesses convert to worker co-operatives; emergency relief for existing co-operatives; and promotional and marketing strategies.
Buy Social Canada is proposing that as part of a post COVID 19 rebuilding strategy, social enterprises be eligible for all business support initiatives, and that local small businesses and social enterprise value criteria on all government procurement.
A Plan for Rebuilding Resilient and Equitable Local Economies
All this activity and experience around the world gives us the ingredients for a major rebuilding plan after COVID 19 – a strategy that gives municipalities the tools and policies they need to rebuild their local economies and community wealth:
Short Term Measures:
Provide financial support to municipal governments to adopt a “Preston Model” approach to local economic development, including the resources to create a local or regional Co-operative Development Network that would develop and support local employee owned enterprises with education and training of potential co-op employees, R&D to identify new opportunities, and finance of co-op conversion and development.
Provide financial and technical assistance and tax incentives to companies wanting to transition to a worker co-operative as they rebuild.
Provide financial and other incentives to large anchor institutions that procure goods and services from local employee owned businesses, and reform procurement rules accordingly. Promote local production and sourcing through labelling and other means.
Require all government financed projects to include a Community Benefits Agreement signed with the contractor and the local community that includes the procurement of goods and services from employee owned businesses and social enterprises, as well training/financing to achieve this goal.
Provide tax credits or other incentives to encourage investment of citizen capital in employee owned or multi-stakeholder co-operatives.
Legislative Changes:
Create new legislation, or modify the existing Cooperative Corporations Acts, to provide a harmonized legal structure for multi-stakeholder worker co-operatives across Canada – a structure that provides these co-operatives with the flexibility to include community investment and customer members, and full access to all of services and assistance currently available to other corporations. *
Create “Right to Own” Legislation that would provide employees of companies that are going out of business, or owners wanting to sell, the right of first refusal to purchase the company as a worker co-operative, and negotiate and finance a buy-out fair to all parties.*
* These two legislative changes could be incorporated into a new Employee Ownership Act.
*The opinions expressed in blog posts are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of CCEDNet
Ten days ago, Juan Tellez was charged with sedition, terrorism and crimes against public health in Bolivia. 
On July 28, the community economic development movement lost an elder.
On August 8, CCEDNet organized a meeting between members of the 
At the last meeting of CCEDNet’s Board of Directors, Victor Beausoleil was selected as the new President of the Board. He takes over from Laurie Cook, who had been President since 2018.
CCEDNet member Roger Peters is an engineer and policy analyst with over 40 years experience in co-operatives, clean energy, and local economic development. He is a founding member of the 
Several EU countries, including Spain, Italy and France have “
In 2017, the United Kingdom Labour Party commissioned a report to look at “