Check out our new national job listing bank by clicking here.

 

Eunice Grayson, founding member of CCEDNet and Executive Director of the Learning Enrichment Foundation, passed away in October, 2007. She will be greatly missed by all of us who knew her in the Canadian CED Network and in the greater CED movement in Canada.

To read more about her work in the CED movement in Canda, please click here. 

The Government of Canada’s Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage program offers support for activities that are intended for and open to the general population and celebrate local heritage, artists and artisans.

To view a fact sheet on this opportunity, click here.

By Judith Maxwell, printed in the Globe and Mail

Talk of corporate tax reductions and incentives to invest in new technologies does not do much to inspire the workers whose jobs have been side-swiped by intense international competition and the high and volatile dollar.

So, when first ministers meet in coming weeks to discuss the impact of the dollar, they have to address two audiences: the hard-pressed business leaders and the communities which are losing their prime source of employment.

To read the entire article click here.

New Project! Community Development Service Learning Initiative

The Community Development Service Learning Initiative is a national project to strengthen service learning opportunities in CED organizations for students, build youth engagement in CED, and facilitate effective experiential learning partnerships between community organizations, educational institutions and youth. 

To learn more about the project click here. 

This work is supported by the McConnell Foundation. 

City incubator hatches culinary entrepreneurs

The 2,000-square-foot facility in northwest Toronto offers a commercial-grade kitchen, mentors and advice on finance and marketing

JENNIFER LEWINGTON The Globe & Mail

As newcomers to Canada in the late 1990s, India-born chef Hemant Tallur and his wife Minal dreamed of starting a food business that captures the ethnic diversity of Toronto.

Their idea – signature dishes from India, the Caribbean and the Philippines packaged as ready-to-eat meals for the North American market – was a blend of his recipes and her expertise in food technology.

Now their fledgling business is getting a boost from a new facility, unveiled yesterday, intended to nurture entrepreneurs in the city’s specialty food industry.

“Someone who starts something new needs help to learn all the nuances of business,” said Mr. Tallur, who left a high-paying computer job to launch his new food career. “You keep a baby in an incubator until it gets healthy,” he said with a laugh. “I am a big baby.”

The new Toronto Food Business Incubator provides a certified, commercial-grade kitchen, peer mentors and advice on finance, food safety and marketing to selected start-ups, – like the Tallurs’ Eat-In – that come in with a business plan, recipes and financial backers.

Yesterday’s opening had the cheerful air of a maternity ward after a birth.

As Mr. Tallur hovered with parent-like pride, chef Mohan Sunal ladled out dal chawal (slow-cooked black lentils) and tikka masala (marinated chunks of chicken), which are among the products Eat-In now prepares onsite and sells to specialty food stores.

“Immigrants come to Canada from different backgrounds and they become true Canadians,” Mr. Tallur said. “This is a perfect opportunity for ethnic foods to be called truly Canadian.”

The 2,000-square-foot facility on Rivalda Road in northwest Toronto, set up with three-year funding from the federal government, the city and its Toronto Economic Development Corp., can serves as many as nine entrepreneurs who pay a registration fee of up to $750, and $30 an hour for the use of the kitchen.

“It not only takes an idea, it takes passion and a tremendous amount of courage to step into the unknown,” said Barbara Shopland, chairwoman of the non-profit incubator and on staff at George Brown’s culinary centre.

Toronto Councillor Kyle Rae (Ward 27, Toronto Centre-Rosedale), chairman of council’s economic development committee, sees the incubator “as the first step in a larger vision we have to create a food processing and innovation centre” in a city where manufacturing jobs are fast disappearing.

With industry and government support, the city hopes to set up a 433,000-square-foot facility to spur commercial applications of culinary ideas.

Toronto’s food “cluster,” ranked third in North America by size in 1999, is a little-known giant that employs more than 40,000 people and generates $20-billion in sales.

Kraft Canada and Campbell Soup are big industry names here, but small and medium-size firms account for 75 per cent of sector jobs.

Specialty food businesses, like those under development at the incubator, are growing twice as fast as the industry average, catering to multiethnic and mainstream consumers, city officials say.

Capitalizing on the trend is the ambition of 30-year-old Adeola Oluyomi and her husband Kola.

They are turning their breakfast catering business into a wholesale maker of a high-fibre, low-fat breakfast cookie.

“There is not a lot of convenient breakfast food that is healthy,” said Ms. Oluyomi, who met her husband at the University of Nigeria and joined him in Canada in 2001. “I thought I would create my own options.”

With the incubator, she pays for the kitchen when she needs it, and has full access to advice on packaging and marketing contacts.

“It’s like a dream come true,” she said.

CCEDNet joins with others concerned about growing social and economic inequality in Canada. These are our recommendations for implementing a Community Economic Development approach to eliminating poverty and revitalizing communities. This is our case for change.

A Communities Agenda:

1. Build Fairer and Stronger Local Economies

2. Tackle Poverty and Homelessness

3. Invest in Sustainable Communities

To download a printable version of our policy brochure please click here.

Toronto Star

Bruce Campion-Smith
Ottawa bureau chief
 

OTTAWA-Canada’s tax system needs be changed to encourage investors to pump money into “social enterprises” – a new breed of businesses that have community good rather than pure profit as their bottom line, says former prime minister Paul Martin.

Canada has “barely scratched” the potential of the charitable sector to help Canadian society – and its economy – and outdated tax laws are partly to blame, Martin will tell a Toronto audience today.

“There are many investors who would put their money into social enterprise, if the vehicles and incentives were there,” Martin will say at the Munk Centre for International Studies, according to a copy of his remarks obtained by the Toronto Star.

Different from charities, he says, social enterprises trade in goods and services and make money, though financial returns are often lower than traditional businesses. “Their major return on investment is calculated by their social or environmental return,” he says.

Tax incentives are needed to promote such enterprises, Martin says. “What we have to do is make it possible for social entrepreneurs to tap capital markets the same way their business counterparts can do.”

Martin says the charitable sector is an unrecognized part of the economy, contributing 8 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

“Without the work of Canada’s charities and non-profits we would be a much poorer society, morally and economically,” Martin says.

The former prime minister will cite the example of Eva’s Phoenix Print Shop in Toronto, which offers shelter and on-the-job training for young people who have suffered abuse or family breakdowns.

“The print shop is now ready to expand its ability to help more young people but needs additional capital to do so,” he said.

If Ottawa can provide tax incentives to spur business entrepreneurs, “why would we not provide similar incentives to social entrepreneurs as they seek to tap capital markets for the betterment of society,” Martin says.

In Britain, “Community Interest Companies” provide tax incentives for firms that operate to benefit the community “rather than purely private gain.” In two years, 1,200 new businesses have been created under a new law.

Martin says he took some steps on the issue when he was finance minister and prime minister but admits now he didn’t go far enough.

 

 

 

 

Date:
Nov 23 2007 – 08:00 – Nov 23 2007 – 04:30
Location:
St. John’s Highschool
Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada
register online

The 2007 Gathering Planning Team is very pleased to announce that both youth actors and directors of the award winning Saskatchewan Native Theatre Company will be presenting as the opening keynote speakers. With a CED and social enterprise strategy, SNTC uses theatre as an effective tool for development as well as a vehicle that nurtures and supports individuals and communities in their healing journey.

And plan to stay for the full day as the closing plenary will be something truly unique. From 4:00 to 4:30, we will finish the full day of networking, learning, sharing, and planning with a celebratory and mood-lifting session with Rolande Kirouac that will be sure to send you on your way feeling better than ever!

So make sure to mark your calendars for November 23 at St. John’s High School in Winnipeg’s North End, from 8:00 to 4:30. And make sure to be there at 8:00 for registration so that you don’t miss a minute of SNTC’s opening presentation! Online registration for the Gathering, and the more than 30 workshops, will be available within days. Watch for it!

ONLINE registration open now!

Event Contact:

Brendan Reimer

(204) 927-3203
Website:
CCEDNet/RCRCDÉC

Oct 20, 2007 04:30 AM

David Olive

Toronto Star

According to the latest statistics from the World Bank, the widening gap between rich and poor in Canada is now roughly on par with that of Indonesia. Indeed, in the matter of income equality, Canada trails not only the Scandinavian countries, but Egypt and Pakistan, as well.

You might think that fact alone would place poverty high on the national agenda. But in this week’s throne speech, Prime Minister Stephen Harper devoted no more than 98 of 4,000 words – less than 3 per cent – to the subject.

To read the article click here.