News Release

The Government of Canada invests in Co-operative Development in the Atlantic Provinces

Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, March 26, 2010 - The Government of Canada is helping to create and develop co-operatives in the Atlantic region, thus contributing to community economic development. The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State (Agriculture), today announced $401,750 for 17 projects funded under the Government of Canada's Co-operative Development Initiative (CDI).

"Co-operatives have long contributed to local economic development, especially in rural and remote areas, where they create jobs and provide essential goods and services," said Minister Blackburn. "The Canadian co-operative sector has proven to be an effective means of strengthening our economy."

As Minister responsible for rural and co-operative development, Minister Blackburn took advantage of his visit to Charlottetown to meet with representatives of the two co-operatives that received funding in the province of Prince Edward Island.

The project Conseil de développement coopératif de l'Île-du-Prince-Édouard aims to transform marine waste into organic fertilizer. By creating a co-operative, this will create jobs in a region where the unemployment rate reaches 12.5%. The Biologics Pro Co-operative aims to collect used cooking oil from restaurants in order to transform it into biodiesel that will then be used by farmers and fishers who are co-operative members. The co-operative will offer an ecological solution to rural regions of Prince Edward Island that prefer to use locally produced, green energy.

"By pooling their resources and working together, the members of these co-operatives have given themselves the means of answering their needs," said Minister Blackburn. "Co-operatives foster leadership, autonomy and control at the local level."

The 17 projects were funded under the CDI, a four-year, $19.1 million program that helps Canadians develop new co-operatives and experiment with innovative ways of using the co-operative model. This initiative has been successful in making the co-operative option readily available to Canadians by improving access to advisory services, helping co-operatives raise the funds they need to succeed, and advancing research and knowledge development. The CDI is managed by the Canadian Co-operative Association and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité in partnership with the Government of Canada.

To learn more about the Co-operative Development Initiative, please refer to the Backgrounder.

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For more information, contact:

Media Relations
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada
Ottawa, Ontario
613-773-7972
1-866-345-7972

Sophie Doucet
Press Secretary
Office of the Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn
613-992-3465

Information on project funding

New Brunswick Association for Community Living
Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Funding: $20,000
Description: Inspired by the home care co-operatives popularized in Quebec, this project aims to assess the feasibility of adapting this concept to meet the needs of persons with physical or intellectual disabilities in New Brunswick. This group hopes to determine the region's level of interest in this type of co-operative and work towards its creation.

Community Energy Cooperative of New Brunswick
Location: Knowlesville, New Brunswick
Funding: $39,000
Description: This wind power co-operative aims to produce renewable energy locally and offer energy conservation programs. The project will emphasize recruiting members and seeking out investments to set up wind turbines on medium-sized dairy farms in Carleton County, New Brunswick.

Knowledge Atlas Inc.
Location: Fredericton, New Brunswick
Funding: $53,750
Description: The goal of this project is to convert a private company, Knowledge Atlas, into a co-operative. The co-operative will address the need to develop Internet tools and make structured knowledge available to Internet users. Workers, content and software developers, and investors will collaborate to create an online research tool.

York North Community Home Care Co-operative
Location: Lower Queensbury, New Brunswick
Funding: $15,000
Description: The co-operative will meet the community's need for services to help the elderly maintain their homes. These services include home maintenance, housework, nursing support for changing dressings, etc. Before setting up the co-operative, its members wish to conduct a feasibility study and develop a business plan to ensure sufficient interest and funding.

Comité Provisoire Coopératives d'énergie verte Chaleur Ltée
Location: Robertville, New Brunswick
Funding: $20,000
Description: This project stems from the region's desire to develop local alternative energy to make the Chaleur region more self-sufficient when it comes to home heating. Preliminary studies are currently under way to support the recruitment of members, farmers and owners of private woodlots who will provide the necessary raw materials for the production of compressed wood pellets.

La Récolte de Chez Nous agricultural co-operative
Location: Dieppe, New Brunswick
Funding: $25,000
Description: The goal of this project is to plan and organize a shop selling local food products that will provide a new outlet for farmers who are co-operative members and also improve consumer access to local products. The co-operative will encourage its members to use sound agricultural practices.

The Fredericton Area Marketing Co-operative Group
Location: Salisbury, New Brunswick
Funding: $12,500
Description: This project aims to create the Collaboration Co-op, which will allow co-operatives in New Brunswick to share resources in order to recruit and retain members. These resources include incentive programs for member recruitment, marketing and advertising activities, training and any other joint activities.

Association des producteurs de bleuets sauvages du nord-est du Nouveau-Brunswick
Location: Paquetville, New Brunswick
Funding: $21,000
Description: The goal of this project is to create a pollination co-operative with a membership of ten producers. These producers specialize in the production of blueberries, raspberries and cranberries, among others, and they will offer the services of their bees and produce honey.

Newfoundland and Labrador Regional Economic Development Association (NLREDA)
Location: St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Funding: $46,825
Description: The goal of this project is to create a co-operative that will offer insurance and benefits services to the employees of its member organizations. The NLREDA will also supply telecommunications products and any other kind of organizational support service to its members.

Friends of St. John's Farmers' Market
Location: St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador
Funding: $20,975
Description: The goal of this project is to create a multistakeholder co-operative that will operate a farmers' market in St. John's. In 2008, a feasibility study on the creation of such a market showed the support of the region's producers and consumers. This project will address the needs of farmers, producers and artisans by giving them the opportunity to sell their products to the public directly and not through an intermediary.

Grainery Food Co-op
Location: Halifax, Nova Scotia
Funding: $12,700
Description: The goal of this co-operative is to offer locally grown, organic produce. This project aims to modernize the co-operative by stabilizing and documenting its operations and by developing a new business plan that will include relocation to the new Halifax Seaport Farmers' Market.

Scotia Direct Lobster Co-op Ltd.
Location: Saulnierville, Nova Scotia
Funding: $20,000
Description: The goal of this project is to use a new transportation method to revitalize the fresh lobster market for Nova Scotia fishers. Aqualife technology is now used in complement of airplanes for the transportation of live shellfish. The ability to export live lobster, freshly caught from the ocean, will greatly increase the value of the catch, thereby increasing profits for fishers.

Annapolis Oilseed Co-op
Location: Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia
Funding: $15,000
Description: Annapolis County has a wealth of agricultural lands, but many of them are lying fallow. The goal of this project is to study the viability of an oilseed processing plant that would primarily produce soybean meal, with biodiesel as its main by-product. The plant would operate using a closed loop system.

Clean Annapolis River Project
Location: Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia
Funding: $15,000
Description: The proponents wish to explore the feasibility of creating a co-operative that will market the specialized environmental protection expertise that its members have developed over the years. The proponents of this co-operative are 18 non-profit environmental management organizations. The co-operative will generate new funds to reinvest in charities and environmental activities.

Le Conseil coopépartif acadien de la Nouvelle-Écosse for the Public transit co-operative project committee
Location: Chéticamp, Nova Scotia
Funding: $20,000
Description: This co-operative will offer a public transit service for persons with mobility issues in the Chéticamp region. The main users will be elderly persons, but some residents without vehicles are also expected to use the service. This project will address a need identified by the residents of the municipality, which does not even have a taxi service.

Biologics Pro Co-operative
Location: Belfast, Prince Edward Island
Funding: $25,000
Description: The goal of this project is to set up a co-operative that will produce vegetal oil, which will be distributed to the restaurants in the region. The used cooking oil will then be recuperated and will subsequently be processed into biodiesel that will be used by farmers and fishers who are co-operative members. The co-operative will meet the objective of using locally produced, green energy.

Le conseil de développement coopératif de l'Î.-P.-É. Ltée
Location: Wellington, Prince Edward Island
Funding: $20,000
Description: This project aims to create a co-operative that will bring together producers of marine waste (fishers, processing plants), users of biofertilizers (farmers, landscapers, etc.) and the coastal community to make profitable use of marine by-products that are currently of little value. The organization hopes to establish a co-operative to process marine waste into biofertilizer.

Backgrounder

Co-operative Development Initiative

The Co-operative Development Initiative (CDI) is a government of Canada program delivered in partnership with the two national organizations of the co-operative sector, which are the Canadian Co-operative Association and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité. CDI is designed to help people develop co-operatives and to test innovative ways of using the co-operative model. CDI makes the co-operative option more readily available to Canadians, to respond to their present-day challenges.

Since it was established in 2003, CDI has supported over 1,500 co-op projects and helped to create over 200 new co-operatives. The program has also allowed for testing new kinds of co-operatives and undertaking research projects to understand how co-operatives can contribute to regional economic development. The Agriculture component of CDI, put in place in 2006, was responsible for the creation of over 60 value-added agricultural co-operatives. This component has now been integrated to the CDI program.

Description of CDI

The program has three interrelated components:

The Advisory Services component is delivered by the co-operative sector through a network of co-operative development experts established across the country. The objective is to provide access to professional and technical services needed for the successful launch or strengthening of a co-operative. The Advisory Services component is managed jointly by the Canadian Co-operative Association and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité.

The Research and Knowledge Development component is designed to undertake, support and share strategic applied research that will advance co-operative development and growth. This component is completely managed by the Governement of Canada.

The Innovative Co-operative Projects component provides funding to innovative projects that respond to public policy priority areas and generate best practices and learning. The policy priorities to be addressed through the Innovative Co-operative Projects are:

• agriculture, including farmer-driven value-added agriculture and biofuels;
• rural/northern community development;
• innovative goods and services, including innovative technologies; and
• capacity building and sustainability of the co-operative sector in Canada.

The upper limit of funding for Innovative Co-operative Projects is $75,000 per year per project. The minimum proponent contribution for Innovative Co-operative Projects is 25% per individual project. The Innovative Co-operative Projects component is delivered jointly by the Canadian Co-operative Association and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité.