Kama Soles (M.A. candidate) and Robert Dobrohoczki (Ph.D. Candidate)

1. Empowering Community through Co-operatives: The Need for Progressive Legislative Change in Saskatchewan Kama Soles (M.A. candidate) and Robert Dobrohoczki (Ph.D. Candidate) Interdisciplinary graduate students at the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives University of Saskatchewan CASC/ICA/ACE Conference Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada May29 - 31 May, 2007

2. The Co-operative Province • Saskatchewan has a long history of co-operative innovation • Facilitating Legislation and policy has both responded to and promoted the sector • “The Co-operative Province” slogan of a 1923 Government pamphlet

3. Progressive Policy and Legislation • Early Co-ops and Leadership in Saskatchewan (Premier Charles Dunning) • CCF (Canadian Co-operative Federation) held a strong ideological link to co-operatives. • Premier T.C. Douglas as minister of Co-operation and Co-oprative Development in 1940’s • Tension existed between the autonomy of the sector and government role in co-operative development: between the desire for social policy and demands of the sector

4. Co-ops • Historically, co-ops have been used to empower groups through pooling resources to meet some social or economic need • Canadians with disabilities are often disproportionately dependent on the social welfare system They are one of the largest economically disadvantaged groups in Canada • The social model of disability advocates the need for persons with disabilities themselves to shape policy, services, and build the capacity necessary for full citizenship

5. The Co-op Province • The province has been responsive to the existing co-operative sector dominated historically by the wheat pooling, retail co-op, and credit union movements • Governments tend to defer to the expertise and demands of the sector • Solidarity co-ops or social co-ops: an innovative form of multi-stakeholder co-op found in Europe and Quebec, are not easily facilitated under Saskatchewan legislation

6. Social or Solidarity Co-ops • These co-ops may deliver services cost-effectively. • They bring together different member categories such as consumer-members, worker-members, and “supporting members” who have an interest in the co-op’s economic or social purpose (Girard and Langlois, 2005).

7. Disability Community • Solidarity or social co-ops developed in Italy as a means of delivering services to people with disabilities • It brought together workers (staff, service providers), stakeholders (family or caregivers, advocacy groups, disability organizations), and persons with disabilities themselves.

8. Italian Social Co-ops • In 1986, there existed just under 500 social co-ops in Italy, serving 35,000 people. • By 1996, roughly 4000 social co-ops were registered and had a grand total of about 100,000 members, of which 75,000 were paid employees, 9,000 volunteers, and the remainder nonworker members. The total number of clients was estimated at 400,000 (Rossi, 1996).

9. Democratic • Social co-ops have different classes of memberships, each democratically represented • Governance is a negotiated settlement. Working together builds solidarity among different interests and perspectives. • Solidarity co-ops are founded on democratic values, the concept of ensuring a voice to different interests in the democratic discourse • This assurance is particularly important for disadvantaged groups to seek empowerment, independence and interdependence, and building capacity within community

10. Social Policy Model • Disability policy is often shaped by a medical model of disability that sees disability as an ill to be cured, rather than a socio-political model that sees disability as a societal construction • Independent living movements must recognize interdependence and societal integration • The solidarity co-op model may allow for participation of disability organizations, caregivers or parents, staff or workers, and importantly, people with disabilities themselves, facilitating a socio-political policy model

11. Empowerment • Solidarity co-ops have the potential to empower persons with disabilities • Because of the multi-stakeholder model, they hold the potential to build capacity within the disability community and encourage social and economic integration • People with disabilities often face systemic obstacles to participation in socio-economic enterprises within the social economy • People with disabilities are often excluded from decision making processes

12. Legislative Facilitation • Some multi-stakeholder co-op models may be possible under the legislation under provisions allowing for different classes of membership (provisions aimed at investor shares) or through second tier co-ops • One could always structure, with enough creativity, a non-profit business Corporation to have a similar structure • The co-op sector has always struggled with equality with the corporate form and legislation that facilitates its development and ensures its co-operative principles • There is a raison d’etre to having facilitating legislation

13. Legislation in Canada • Quebec legislation has provisions specifically targeted to development of solidarity co-operatives • Legislation in British Columbia allows multi-stakeholder co-ops

14. Pillars or Silos • Co-ops in Saskatchewan tend to be slotted into silos: housing, employment, community service, consumer, community clinics (healthcare). • A solidarity co-op may be part worker co-op, part community service co-op, part consumer or part housing co-op • Quebec, Ontario and Alberta have specific mention of multistakeholder models in legislation

15. Legislative Change • Tends to change to meet needs of the sector • Often reacts to what is already the case (Italian social co-ops only formally recognized in legislation in 1991) • Policy makers can be proactive in promoting co-operative option through acknowledgement of the model in legislation • Progressive legislation examines and adopts new structures to promote successful innovation in the social economy

16. Possible Legislation • May facilitate consideration of the model as a possibility • May ensure and encourage the participation of disadvantaged groups • Encourage discourse, collaboration, and capacity building • Frame multistakeholder co-op models in a legal framework of co-operation • Encourage a socio-political model of disability

17. Thank you. Comments or Questions?Kama Soles kama.soles@usask.caRobert Dobrohoczki, Rob.Dobrohoczki@usask.caSpecial thanks to: