News Release

Government of Canada supports CoopZone

Edmonton, Alberta, March 31, 2010 - The Honourable Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Minister of Veterans Affairs and Minister of State (Agriculture) today announced that the Government of Canada is helping to establish a co-operative centre of expertise by investing $67,000 in the CoopZone Co-operative. This project, funded under the Government of Canada's Co-operative Development Initiative (CDI), will provide virtual training for all economic development officers.

"Co-operatives have a long history in Canada and have helped communities create effective solutions to economic and social challenges, while building local leadership skills, autonomy, control and job opportunities," said Minister Blackburn, who is also responsible for rural and co-operative development. "For more than 100 years, co-operatives have contributed greatly to local economic development in Canada."

To further the expertise in co-operative development, co-op developers have come together to present existing training tools as an all-encompassing virtual training program. The CoopZone Co-operative will offer access to these tools on a continuous basis to encourage, support and build the co-operative centre of expertise.

CoopZone is one of many projects funded under CDI, a four-year, $19.1 million program that helps Canadians develop new co-operatives and experiment innovative ways of using the co-operative model. This initiative, which has been successful in making the co-operative option readily available to Canadians by improving access to advisory services, helping co-operatives gather funding and advancing research and knowledge development, is co-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.

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.

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

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.

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.