The Latest News From Canada's Worker Co-op Sector
May 2022 Volume 14 Issue 5
In This Issue

  • Report from the Executive Director, by Hazel Corcoran
  • Rapport de la directrice générale, par Hazel Corcoran
  • FarmWorks Investment Co-operative Promotes Healthy Farms, Healthy Food, by Kenzie Love
  • La Coopérative d’investissment FarmWorks: un milieu agricole sain pour une alimentation saine, par Kenzie Love
  • International Co-operative Alliance Consultation a Chance to Define the Co-operative Identity, by Kenzie Love
  • CWCF Accepting Applications for Executive Assistant/Adjoint∙e administratif∙ve à la FCCT
  • CWCF Accepting Applications for Worker Co-op Academy
  • Ongoing Co-op Surveys
  • Solidarity Economy Principles Workshop Recording Now Available
  • Upcoming CWCF Events
  • Canadian Co-op News and Events - Round-up
  • CWCF's Hazel Corcoran and Jared Blustein on All Things Co-op
  • "In a Pandemic Downturn, Worker Co-ops are On the Rise"
  • Forming a Co-op Saved Six Canadian Newspapers from Closing. Here's How They Do Business Now
  • Emerging Co-operators Education Fund Seeking Applicants
  • Co-operatives, Work, and the Digital Economy
  • How We Converted to a Cooperative—and How You Can, Too, by Rachel Gertz
Report from the Executive Director
By Hazel Corcoran
  • Worker Co-op Academy
  • Young Adult Arts and Culture Grant
  • CWCF at Conferences in Spring 2022



Rapport de la directrice générale
Par Hazel Corcoran

  • Académie des coopératives de travail 
  • Bourse pour la relève en arts et culture
  • Participation de la FCCT à des conférences au printemps 2022

FarmWorks Investment Co-operative Promotes Healthy Farms, Healthy Food
By Kenzie Love

FarmWorks promotes and provides strategic and responsible community investment in food production and distribution in order to increase Nova Scotians’ access to sustainable local food.


La Coopérative d’investissment FarmWorks: un milieu agricole sain pour une alimentation saine
Par Kenzie Love

FarmWorks fournit en effet de l’investissement communautaire de manière stratégique et responsable dans les domaines de la production et de la distribution alimentaires.

International Co-operative Alliance Consultation a Chance to Define the Co-operative Identity
By Kenzie Love

When it comes to determining what a co-op is, it seems that the process of the consultation will be as important as the product.

CWCF Accepting Applications for Executive Assistant

CWCF is seeing a an ambitious, results-driven Executive Assistant to support the Executive Director and other staff. This role requires a flexible, bilingual individual capable of performing a mix of tasks. This position can be remote. The position will be part-time (20 hours per week) starting in May, 2022, as soon as possible.


Adjoint∙e administratif∙ve à la FCCT

La FCCT est à la recherche d’une personne adjointe administrative ambitieuse et axée sur les résultats. Cette personne appuiera la directrice générale et d’autres membres de l’équipe dans leurs activités quotidiennes. Le poste requiert d’être bilingue et de faire preuve de flexibilité et d’agilité pour mener à bien une diversité de tâches. Le travail peut s’effectuer à distance et il s’agit d’un poste à temps partiel (20 h/semaine). L’entrée en fonction se fera en mai 2022, le plus tôt possible.

CWCF Accepting Applications for Worker Co-op Academy

CWCF is busy getting ready for the second iteration of our Worker Co-op Academy, a program that provides groups who have a well thought-out concept for a worker co-op a chance to transform their vision into a reality. If you or anyone you know has interest in applying, and has a core group of at least three members and a business idea, it’s not too late to apply for the cohort starting in the coming weeks. See this link for more information.
Ongoing Co-op Surveys

  • The International Co-operative Alliance is conducting a short survey on how well the Statement on Co-operative Identity has stood the test of time. Please take a few minutes of your time to complete the survey and to share this link with others. The survey will remain open until a sufficient number of responses have been received.
  • CMC is conducting a bilingual survey for young co-operators, age 35 and under.
Solidarity Economy Principles Workshop Recording Now Available

For those who missed or would like to watch again, a recording of CWCF's April 6 workshop facilitated by Rebecca Kemble and Cheyenna Weber is now available. More information on the principles is available here. The CWCF board will be considering endorsing these principles in its board meeting in June.
Upcoming CWCF Events

  • CWCF will be hosting an outdoor meet and greet opportunity with its staff and board and other members of the co-op sector on the patio of Citizen Brewing in Calgary, June 12 at 6 pm MT. Please register here.
  • What is a Worker Co-op? June 22

Image courtesy Molly Graham, artist
Canadian Co-op News

  • In this episode of All Things Co-op, Cinar, Larry, and Kevin talk with Hazel Corcoran and Jared Blustein from the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation. Hazel has been the CWCF's executive director since 1995 and Jared is a founding worker-owner of The Allium, a plant-based worker co-op in Calgary. The group discusses the unique landscape of the Canadian worker cooperative movement, touching on issues around building the solidarity economy and Canada's national legislation on co-operatives. Jared and Hazel speak to both the benefits of operating within the worker co-op framework as well as the challenges their organizations face in a largely capitalist economy.
  • "In a Pandemic Downturn, Worker Co-ops are On the Rise", an article from Breach Media, explores how more and more people across Canada are turning to collaborative work models to stay afloat.
  • Forming a co-op saved six Canadian newspapers from closing. Here’s how they do business now.
  • The Emerging Co-operators Education Fund, a scholarship program for young Canadian workers, volunteers, and students in the co-op sector is now accepting applications.
  • The idea of platform cooperativism has raised the profile of co-operatives within tech communities and heightened the interest in digital technology within the co-operative movement. The report Co-operatives, Work, and the Digital Economy surveys recent literature on the formation of co-operatives as a strategy to improve work and livelihoods in the digital economy.
  • CMC Grants and Grantmakers Workshop, Monday June 13, 1-4 pm MT, Fairmont Palliser Hotel, Oak Room (133 9th Avenue SW Calgary, Alberta). The goal of this free workshop is to support fundraising efforts through capacity building, obtaining transferable knowledge and provide an overview of the Investment Readiness Program (IRP). The workshop is open to all social purpose organizations (SPOs).
  • Invitation à l'atelier de CMC sur les subventions et les subventionneurs, lundi 13 juin 2022, 13h00-16h00 (montagne).Hôtel Fairmont Palliser, Oak Room (133 9th Avenue SW Calgary Alberta T2P 2M3). L'objectif est de soutenir les efforts de collecte de fonds par le renforcement des capacités, l'obtention de connaissances transférables et un aperçu du Programme de Préparation à l'Investissement (PPI). L'atelier est ouvert à tous les organismes à vocation sociale (OVS). Gratuit.
How We Converted to a Cooperative—and How You Can, Too
By Rachel Gertz

The healthiest and happiest companies in the world are democracies. At Louder Than Ten, the project management training company that I co-founded more than 13 years ago, we’ve seen this firsthand.

The Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation (CWCF) is a national, bilingual grassroots membership organization of and for worker co-operatives, related types of co-operatives (multi-stakeholder co-ops and worker-shareholder co-ops), and organizations that support the growth and development of worker cooperatives. CWCF's e-newsletter is available free of charge to anyone with an e-mail address and an interest in worker co-operative developments in Canada. Please send any comments and suggestions, or news about your co-op, to:  

Kenzie Love
Editor of CWCF Newsletter 
.(403) 276-8250