Joint Co-operative Development Project

The Joint Development Cooperative Project (2004-2005), a partnership between Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs, four Community Futures Development Corporations and the Rural Development Institute, aimed at improving the quality of life and well being of four communities in northern Manitoba through co-operative development. The goals of the project were to assess the need, desire and levels of commitment of residents of four communities (Camperville, Cormorant, Matheson Island, and Seymourville) towards retail-consumer co-operatives in each of the communities. A broader scope of the project was to look at the co-operative model as an economic arm of the northern communities in Manitoba.

Students from the Masters’ of Rural Development program, staff from Manitoba Aboriginal & Northern Affairs, Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives and Manitoba Community Futures Development Corporations worked in collaboration. With the aid of a community liaison, and support of the local mayors and councils and Community Futures Development Corporations, surveys were administered in each of the four communities. Based on these surveys, a report was composed for each of the four communities that reviewed demographics, economic activity, social services and findings from the in-person delivered survey. Residents of each community provided information on spending habits (communities traveled to, frequency and amounts purchased), desire and commitment towards a co-operative in the community and other family information such as household member ages. In addition to the community reports, a series of working papers developed to highlight the historical background to the co-operative movement, northern & aboriginal community involvement with co-operatives, and the role of co-operatives in community economic development were developed.

Publications

Research Team