CANADA. The model that Canada has adopted for cooperatives development involves a strong partnership between the state and the cooperatives movement. The state provides a highly‐enabling environment for vibrant cooperatives to operate, through a legislative framework that promotes strict adherence to international cooperative principles. This has proven to be highly effective and a favourable tax regime for cooperatives. The legislative framework covers federal and provincial levels, with alignment to federal and provincial programmes, and the effective co‐ordination thereof. Co‐ordination is managed via the Cooperative Secretariat – an intergovernmental forum for all departments that have legislation, policies and strategies for cooperatives. The Canadian model targets the entire value chain of cooperatives, including credit unions (over US$200 billion in assets; agricultural ($9,6 billion turnover in 2003), consumer ($7,3 billion in assets), housing cooperatives ($5,7 billion in assets), insurance (over $16 billion in assets), and worker cooperatives ($343 million in assets). While all the sectors are performing well, on average, the most successful co‐ operative sector is that of the credit union. The least‐performing is that of the worker sector. The sectors were established via initial government support and are now totally self‐ reliant, except for the housing and the worker sectors. In the housing sector, government still subsidises levies for low‐income families and in the worker sector, the government partners with the cooperatives movement to provide funding for the establishment of new worker cooperatives and expansion of existing ones. Success factors in this regard include the following: Effective coordination among government departments; Strong partnership with the cooperatives movement; Formation of secondary cooperatives for each sector, to drive their development; Formation of cooperative study centres at universities, to provide education and training; and Conduct research and perform comparative studies on cooperatives.
