The Canadian co-operative movement is reeling from the realization that federal budget cost cutting includes a sharp reduction in support for co-op development.
The Canadian Cooperative Association said April 13 that as details of the implications of $5.2 billion in budget cuts in the March 29 budget trickle out of Ottawa, the co-op sector is a target.
The $4 million Cooperative Development Initiative, started in 2003 as an incubator for new co-ops, is being cut.
And there are reports out of Agriculture Canada that the staff of the Rural and Cooperatives Secretariat will be cut to 15 from 92.
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The federal cuts to co-op support come during the International Year of Cooperatives, supported by the federal Conservatives as a United Nations initiative.
“The cuts to the CDA program and the Rural and Cooperatives Secretariat send a very disturbing signal for all Canadian cooperatives,” Brigitte Gagné, executive director of the Conseil Canadien de la Coopération et de la Mutualité, said in a statement issued by the CCA.
“We view this as a lack of recognition of the importance of co-operatives in job creation and economic growth in this country,” said the head of the francophone branch of the national co-op movement.
“We don’t understand this decision in light of the program’s success. We are now waiting for a concrete gesture on behalf of the (prime minister Stephen) Harper government to show its support for the co-operative sector.”
The CDI has provided seed money and support to help launch or expand more than 300 co-ops since the program started almost nine years ago.
Co-op officials noted April 13 that Canada’s commitment to support the UN year of the co-operative means it is supposed to be creating a “supportive environment” for the development of co-ops rather than reducing support.
Agriculture Canada once housed a co-operatives secretariat and then it was merged with the rural secretariat.
The budget cuts will sharply reduce the ability of the secretariat to act as a link between the movement and the government, says the co-op lobby.
“Staff reductions in the secretariat will severely affect the dialogue between Canada’s 9,000 co-operatives and the federal government,” said the CCA.
“The budget cuts to the secretariat will also have a direct impact on the promotion of the co-operative model and the co-ordination of federal government programs related to co-operatives.”
