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is a collaboration between the University of Winnipeg’s Community Renewal Corporation and SEED Winnipeg. It is designed to serve up delicious and locally-sourced food, all while offering meaningful employment opportunities to inner-city residents. In addition to the U of W campus restaurant, Diversity also offers a catering service, so call them for your next meeting, gathering or party.
is a volunteer-led organization that will come pick your fruit and share the yield between yourself, themselves, and community groups. Started in 2010, the initiative is now active in several Manitoba communities, working to eliminate wasted fruit and foster a greater sense of community. If you have more fruit in your yard than you know what to do with, give Fruit Share a call, and know that it will be put to productive use.
offers you a delicious meal and makes known the gifts of people with developmental disabilities. It was established as social enterprise in 2012, and has since encouraged the public to interact with and get to know a person with a disability over a cup of coffee, thus fostering greater levels of inclusion and equality. Also keep L’Arche Tova Cafe in mind for your future catering needs. 
is a non-profit social enterprise operated by the West Broadway Community Organization that offers two delicious gourmet soups each week (one vegetarian and one with meat). Soups are prepared in such a way that provides supportive employment opportunities to Winnipeg’s downtown/core area; the program promotes local food security and environmental sustainability. 
began its main operation, the Rainbow Community Gardens, in 2008. The membership of the co-operative is made up of newcomers to Winnipeg (and in most cases Canada), who are encouraged to grow their own fruits and vegetables, from which produce is retained by the families but also shared within their community and local markets. 
is a social enterprise and pre-employment program that offers delicious city-wide catering options. The program provides hands-on training in and for the hospitality industry. Participants are able to operate a community store and participate in cooking classes, a breakfast program and the catering business.
was founded in 1972 and has been working to provide accessible primary health care, counseling and childcare every since. Working in the tradition of alternative health models of the Canadian Prairies, NorWest offers an array of empowering health services to its members and partners; it is the only health co-op in Manitoba. 
services; whether it be the use of their environmentally
provides conflict resolution services and valuable professional development programs for non-profit organizations.The Skills Centre, which is run by Mediation Services Winnipeg, operates on the belief that effective conflict resolution skills can help you at work, in your personal relationships, and at home. 
is an acronym for Building Urban Infrastructure for Local Development. This non-profit social enterprise retrofits low-income homes to be more efficient and environmentally sustainable while employing members of its community who face multiple barriers to employment. Its work builds community and the economy while improving the environment.
runs Winnipeg’s only carsharing service, offering the benefits of having access to a vehicle without the financial and environmental burden of owning one. This budding cooperative maintains support for alternative modes of transportation such as biking and public transit, but should you require the use of a car from time to time, then look no further and contact Peg City Car Co-op today.
stands for the Brandon Energy Efficient Program, and since 2007 it has been increasing the energy and water efficiency of Brandon’s affordable housing stock. It develops unskilled workers with limited work experience into capable craftspeople who work to make their communities stronger and more environmentally responsible.
is a social enterprise with the goal of being self-sustaining employee-owned company, and it serves a variety of clients in the commercial renovations sector. Founded in 2002, ICR continues to create quality jobs for low income people who live in Winnipeg’s inner-city, which strengthens the communities in which they work. 
This October, the Canadian CED Network encourages you to attend the Social Enterprise World Forum in Calgary from October 2-4. This is the first time this event will be held in Canada. The early registration fee is only in place for two more weeks. Register here!
Some recent news has been released surrounding the happenings of the event.
The closing keynote will feature Pamela Hartigan, the Director of the Skoll Center for Social Enterprise at Oxford University’s Said Business School. Her topic wil be “Will You Greet or Great the Future?” Find out more here.
While you are at it, take a peak at the full of speakers that have been announced.
Please remember to register soon, and we hope to see you there!
Director of the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University’s Said Business School
Pamela Hartigan
Pamela Hartigan
Adapted from “Local Governments Recognize Benefits of Buying Local” by Sarah McKinley on Community-Wealth.org
Efforts to localize economies expand and diversify local ownership, offer import substitutions, and foster business cooperation in a particular place with the result of creating more jobs — and, hence, wealth — per capita, and encouraging greater personal accountability for the health of communities.
In the US, BALLE is at the forefront of a growing national movement to encourage local purchasing to stimulate business and economic growth. More and more, local governments and large place-based institutions — anchor institutions — play an integral role in encouraging localism and fostering small business. When governments and institutions direct their procurement needs locally they help stimulate local business development and foster a stronger local economy. At the recent 2013 BALLE conference, Democracy Collaborative Research Director, Steve Dubb, moderated a panel on this topic entitled “Local First Grows Up: Localizing Procurement by Governments and Anchor Institutions.”
With increasing frequency, local governments are passing ordinances that facilitate and incentivize local purchasing for city and county governments. Panelist Kimberly Lanning, Executive Director of Local First Arizona and board member for BALLE, worked with the city of Phoenix to change their procurement policy to favor locally owned businesses. Phoenix’s Small Business Enterprise Program requires that preference be given to bids from local businesses for all purchasing contracts under $50,000.
Other jurisdictions have enacted similar policies. In 2010, the City of Cleveland passed an ordinance that offered a bid incentive to local producers, local-food purchasers, and sustainable businesses that apply for city contracts. Known as the Buy Local ordinance, this policy enables the city to apply a 2% discount on all bids made by businesses that are sustainable, locally-based, and/or purchase 20% of their food locally. Preferences can be combined for a max discount of 4%.
Most recently, Dane County, Wisconsin successfully enacted a significant preferred purchasing ordinance that enables small local businesses to compete more effectively for county contracts. Supported by the local BALLE member, Dane Buy Local, this ordinance extends preferences in county bidding to businesses that sell county-, region-, and state-made goods. In the process of passing this law, Dane County government became the first unit of government to join Dane Buy Local as a member, setting the precedent for local city governments.
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Following up on their efforts to support Bill C-400 and a national housing strategy, the Dignity for All campaign is sending a letter to the Premiers in advance of the Council of the Federation meeting July 24-26. The letter urges Canadian premiers to put housing at the top of their agenda for this meeting. Specifically the letter calls on Canadian premiers to urge the federal government to renew the expiring federal operating funds for social housing and ask for a federal-provincial-territorial housing ministers’ meeting to lay the groundwork for a national housing strategy.
The letter states:
“A robust national housing strategy based in human rights, which focuses on those most in need, includes measureable goals and timelines, engages a variety of stakeholders and provides monitoring and accountability mechanisms, is urgently needed.”
If your organization supports housing as a human right, as a key determinant of health, and a critical component of ending poverty, please consider signing the postcard below and sending it directly to Premier Wynne, the host of this year’s meeting. The postcard calls on the premiers to urge the federal government for implementation of a national housing strategy, and renewed funding of $1.7 billion in annual operating costs for social housing providers.
Download the postcard
The Canadian CED Network’s Work on Affordable Housing:
Housing relates directly to two CCEDNet-Manitoba policy resolutions, which are submitted and adopted by our members. Resolution 2013.5 calls on all levels of government to support the protection of existing, and creation of new affordable housing including through a national housing strategy. Resolution 2013.6 addresses the end of long-term operating agreements faced by housing cooperatives in Manitoba.
This brief was prepared by the Canadian Community Economic Development (CED) Network for the Sustainable Development Office at Environment Canada as part of its consultations on the Draft Federal Sustainable Development Strategy 2013-2016.
The Government of Canada’s current approach to sustainable development reflects a commitment to “minimizing the environmental impacts of its policies and operations as well as maximizing the efficient use of natural resources and other goods and services.” The Canadian CED Network recommends that the Government of Canada broaden its understanding of sustainable development by adopting the International Institute for Sustainable Development’s definition and applying it to the Strategy: “for development to be sustainable, it must not only generate wealth: it must also advance social justice, reduce and eventually eliminate poverty, and remain within the limits imposed by ecosystem and resource resilience.” This definition suggests that truly sustainable development requires that sustainability be achieved on three pillars: economic, social, and environmental.
Taking this three-pillar approach to sustainable development, the brief makes recommendations for the federal government to enhance sustainable procurement practices and provide support for community economic development and community enterprises.
Read the full brief
At the Annual General Meetings of the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité (CCCM), in Edmonton last week, delegates voted to create a single bilingual organization to represent co-ops, credit unions and mutual insurance companies for all of Canada.
This is a historic decision because of the long-standing linguistic divide between English- and French-speaking co-operators, stretching back to the birth of the Canadian co-operative movement in the 19th century.
The new organization is tentatively named Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada, and is expected to be launched in early 2014, taking over the domestic mandates of the CCA and the CCCM. CCEDNet members Hazel Corcoran from the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation and Vera Goussaert from the Manitoba Co-operative Association have been named to the interim Board.
Also at the Congress, CCEDNet member and longtime CED leader Melanie Conn received CCA’s Canadian Co-operative Achievement Award.
Congratulations to CCA, CCCM, Melanie and all of Canada’s dedicated co-operators who are building a better world.
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As recently reported by SEDI, on June 20th, the Honourable Ted Menzies, Minister of State (Finance), took the first step toward fulfilling the federal government’s commitment to appoint a national Financial Literacy leader to spearhead the development of a national strategy to build the financial literacy of Canadians.
This position was recommended by the federal Task Force on Financial Literacy in its 2011 report and promised in the subsequent 2011 federal budget, but action was delayed by the slow passage of the necessary legislation, the Financial Literacy Leader Act, which finally received Royal Assent in March 2013.
The Financial Literacy Leader will be tasked with clear leadership and coordination on national financial literacy initiatives and the development of a broad national financial literacy strategy. They will report to both the Minister of Finance and to Parliament through the Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC).
SEDI considers the appointment of a Financial Literacy Leader to be positive for two reasons.
First, it is an important step toward the development of a comprehensive national financial literacy strategy. While attempts have been made by FCAC, the Financial Literacy Action Group, SEDI and others to coordinate diverse financial literacy research, programs, and policy initiatives across the country, these efforts have been hampered by the lack of a mandated champion and budget to support real cross-sectoral, national coordination. The new Leader will have the mandate and budget to fill this gap.
Second, the new leader has been tasked by the federal government to develop a national strategy that places particular emphasis on seniors and vulnerable groups such as Aboriginal people, youth, immigrants and low-income Canadians. This shows that the government has listened to the voices of SEDI and other community stakeholders who have underscored the need for targeted strategies to assist vulnerable and low-income groups, for whom generic approaches and programs are often not as effective.
The deadline for interested candidacies to submit their CV is July 22, 2013.
Read more about the Notice of Vacancy
Read more about the Selection criteria
By Jackie Wong, Tyee Solutions Society. Originally posted on The Tyee.
Thinking back to the eight months he spent last year as one of the more radical Vancouver members of the Mayor’s Task Force on Housing Affordability, Mike Lewis is glad to see one recommendation starting to bear fruit.
On May 15, Vancouver city council approved a staff proposal to build 355 units of rental housing on four city-owned sites, to be operated by four community land trust partners.
Lewis praises the decision as “one way of pushing back” against the “rank individualism” of our times.
Last year, Lewis co-authored The Resilience Imperative. In it he writes about community land trusts around the world. He sees them as one way of reclaiming the commons and bridging what he calls the gap between the “we” and the “I.”
Community land trusts do that by owning property under a non-profit, multi-stakeholder, democratic governance model. They are guided by the idea that community control of land, instead of real-estate market investor control, helps keep down the cost of housing.
Vancouver’s Community Housing Land Trust Foundation is a registered charity created two decades ago by the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC. Under the new agreement, Vancouver will lease four city-owned parcels of land to the Land Trust Foundation. It in turn will sub-lease those sites to four partners to develop affordable rental-housing units.
The partners are Fraserview Housing Co-operative, Tikva Housing Society, Katherine Sanford Housing Society and HFBC Housing Foundation. The Land Trust will oversee housing development and construction. The four partners will operate the housing after it’s been built, with the Land Trust overseeing things and reporting annually to the city on how they are reaching affordability targets.
With construction slated to begin in March 2014, the first residents are expected to move in by November 2015.
“This is common sense,” Lewis says. “That’s what I’m excited about by this social-purpose development partnership. It’s principled, it’s pragmatic, and it’s leveraging assets.”
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In partnership with the Cape Breton University Creative Community Business Conference, CCEDNet invites you to CED in Atlantic Canada: Strategies for Development
This session will consider the changing landscape for CED in Atlantic Canada and examine strategies and opportunities to create a more enabling environment. Brendan Reimer, Manitoba Director for the Canadian CED Network will present the Manitoba experience of successful regional development, and representatives from the cooperative, social enterprise, CBDC, community, academic and government sectors across the region will share their perspectives.
Date: Wednesday July 10, 1pm-4:30pm
Location: SB100 in the Shannon School of Business building (map)
- If you’re coming in person, no need to register. See you there!
- People who can’t attend in person can join via webinar. Register here for the webinar
The session precedes the opening of the Shannon School of Business Creative Community Business Conference, which brings together practitioners, researchers, and community organizations to discuss current practices, challenges, and emerging trends in community business. The conference includes presentations from more than 20 thought leaders, with Kevin Lynch PC OC, former Clerk of the Privy Council as the keynote speaker. Distinguished plenary speakers include Drs Jan and Cornelia Flora (Iowa), on rural community economic development, and Dr. Tony Charles (SMU, Nova Scotia) on management of coastal resources. Presenters include Mike Toye, Brendan Reimer, Stewart Perry, Rankin MacSween, Rupert Downing, Greg MacLeod and more.
Register for the full Creative Community Business Conference
We hope to see you in Cape Breton!
One of the main objectives of the 5th Meeting on Social Solidarity Economy in Manila 2013 is to build global consensus and highlight the dissents and issues on different global or specific aspects related to the practical, conceptual and political identity of Social Solidarity Economy.
RIPESS (Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy) offers this working paper as a starting point for dialogue on the concepts, definitions and frameworks of the social solidarity economy (SSE). This is a basic document to inform the consultation process that aims to clarify our visions and understandings of the SSE, in order to move towards greater convergence where possible, and to more clearly understand the divergences that remain. Your feedback will inform the discussions on Social Solidarity Economy Vision at the 5th International Meeting on Social Solidarity Economy, October 15-18, 2013 in Manila, Philippines.
RIPESS invites local, regional, national and continental initiatives and networks in all continents to participate in this global consultation.
You may answer all or only part of the questions below. For background and inputs to the discussion, please refer to the Working Paper (Document 2) and the RIPESS Charter of Principles (Document 3), available at the following links:
Comments can be sent until August 9, 2013 to .
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On a bright and warm day in Winnipeg, the Canadian CED Network gathered for our annual general meeting. Held at the St. Matthew’s Community Center, over thirty-five people attended, along with representatives from Newfoundland, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Calgary, Victoriaville, Montreal, and Quebec City, who were able to join virtually. CCEDNet President Carloine Lachance led the meeting, and governance expert Yvon Poirier was on hand to present new by-laws.With formal business taken care of, substantive discussions on priorities and directions for the Network will be held at the Social Enterprise World Forum in Calgary from October 2-4. Time will be set aside for our members to get together to network, learn, and discuss ways to continue to build a strong national CED network. We look forward to the opportunity to gather with a diverse group of members from all over Canada at this great event. Click below to read our annual report for 2012.
