Rural and Aboriginal

Communities in Western Canada

Murray Fulton, Dionne Pohler, Darcy Overland, Wu HaoTao, Merle Massie, Bev Fairful

Centre for the Study of Co-operatives, University of Saskatchewan

November 30, 2015

Co-operative Innovation ProjectProject Background

In November 2013, Federated Co-operatives Limited entered into a partnership with the Centre for the Study of Co-operatives to examine:

Is the co-operative model relevant to meet needs in rural and Aboriginal communities in Western Canada?

If so, what is needed to effectively develop new co-operatives and sustain the existing ones?

Research partners

Centre for the Study of Co-operatives (U of S)

Johnson-Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy (U of S)

Edwards School of Business (U of S)

Institute for Northern Governance & Development (U of S)

Plunkett Foundation (UK)

The Research Team

Project Management Group

Dawn Brinkmeier, Ken Coates, Peter Couchman, Murray Fulton,

Dionne Pohler

Researchers

Bev Fairful,Wu Haotao, Rhiannon Klein, Dazawray Landrie-Parker,

Merle Massie, Nicole McLaren, Darcy Overland

Research Assistants

Miranda Gouchie, Paula Mowat, Kyle White

Findings

The co-op model remains feasible in rural and Aboriginal communities as a locally-driven solution to address unmet needs.

People will explore and create innovative and thriving co-ops if they are inspired to do so, and supported through politically-aware relationship-building and connections throughout the process.

What is needed is a dual approach: vigorous co-op development activity at the community level; and focused effort at the pan-provincial level to leverage economies of scale and connect the western Canadian co-operative community.

Background

Rural and Aboriginal communities in western Canada have

been under increasing social and economic pressure due to

changing demographic patterns, market forces, urbanization,

and government priorities & programs.

Communities, and individuals within communities, need to

take advantage of innovative ideas and practices if they are

to maintain and improve their quality of life.

Communities have different strengths to leverage and

challenges to overcome – solutions must be community

focused and locally driven. There is no silver bullet.

What is Needed?

Social Innovation – Ideas to address complex social problems

in new ways.

Social Enterprise – Social innovation that involve businesses

blending profit earning with the achievement of social

outcomes.

Co-operatives

A critical element in social innovation and social enterprise

Owned and democratically controlled by the people that use or

benefit from the service that the enterprise provides

Are often able to meet the needs that arise because of market or

government provision failure

Research Design

Definition of rural communities

Use Statistics Canada definitions – Census Subdivision (CSD) as

community. Eliminated any CSDs in Census Metropolitan

Amalgamations (CMAs), Census Agglomerations (CAs), strong

Metropolitan Influenced Zones (MIZ)

Province Total CSDs With

Population > 0

CMA/CA

CSDs

Strong MIZ

CSDs

Rural CSD

(Study Population)

Manitoba 279 19 17 243

Saskatchewan 903 64 62 777

Alberta 421 81 52 288

British Columbia 656 199 34 423

Total 2259 363 165 1731

Research Design

Definition of Aboriginal communities – use Statistics Canada

definitions for CSDs.

Multiple CSDs were associated with the same community

name. For some analysis these CSDs were combined.

Prov. Aborig.

CSDs

Aborig. CSDs

Associated With

Community of Same

Name

Total CSDs

(Study

Population)

Modified

Population After

Combining

Aboriginal CSDs

MB 72 8 243 235

SK 112 40 777 737

AB 59 20 288 268

BC 244 83 423 340

Total 487 151 1731 1580

Data Collection

Literature review

Statistical data collection

26 community visits to 13 Aboriginal and 50 rural communities

Phone survey of 2,025 rural and Aboriginal residents

Web survey of 359 community administrators

Reached 37% of rural and Aboriginal communities in W. Canada

Analysis of provincial co-operative association websites

Interviews with co-op developers across western Canada

Community Visits (26)

Communities Reached

Research Challenges

Data was often difficult to access, unavailable, or not in a

format useful to the project.

Timelines – 18 months of data collection and analysis – lots

more to do.

Data collection and reporting mechanisms to serve co-op

development and the co-op sector in general are lacking.

Data on new start-ups are costly to obtain, and data on overall

co-op activity are extremely dated. The up-to-the-minute

data required for development and policy work do not exist.

Overall Community Information

Information is at a western Canada level by community type.

Based on 2006 Census and 2011 Census and National

Household Survey.

The same information is available at a provincial and

community level, where not suppressed by Statistics Canada.

Key Lessons: Comparison of

Provinces

BC has older mean age; SK and MB have highest dependency

ratio.

MB and SK have highest international immigration in last 5 yrs.

MB and SK have highest % Aboriginal population.

MB and SK have lowest median income.

SK has fastest income growth.

MB and SK have smallest income % in Wages & Salaries;

Highest % in Self-Employment.

Key Lessons: Rural versus

Aboriginal

Aboriginal population younger; most of population is 3rd

generation or more.

Rural population has higher post-secondary education, and greater % in business, life sciences, math/engineering.

Very different pattern of home ownership.

Aboriginal population has a lower median income, but similar % of income from wages and salaries.

Rural population has higher participation rate, lower unemployment, higher rate of self-employment, and smaller % in education, law and social services.

Community Visits (26)

Cluster Pop Age Migration Education IncomeMajor

Occupation

2ndImptSourceofIncome

MainBusiness

1 Stable Older Low Higher HigherSales

TradesPensions

ConstructionAgriculture

2 Growing Younger Low Higher Higher Sales Invest Agriculture

3 GrowingAverage

toYounger

High Higher AverageTradesSales

InvestPensions

AgricultureConstructionRealEstate

4 Stable YoungerAveragetoHigh

Average HigherSales

TradesMgmt.

Child Agriculture

5 Growing Younger Verylow Lower LowerSales

Educ/Law/SSTrades

ChildRetail

Agriculture

6StabletoFalling

AveragetoOlder

High/LowAverage-

lowerHigher/Lower

TradesManagement

Pensions Agriculture

7 Falling Average High/Low Lower LowerTradesSales

Ed/Law/SS

CPPChild

ConstructionAgriculture

Clusters:#1–LacDuBonnetMB,DauphinMB;#2–HumboldtSK;#3–LairdSK,40MileAB,MountainViewAB,KootenayBC,SmokeyLakeAB;#4–PonokaAB,St.PaulAB,MacKenzieAB;#5–Div.#18SK,Div.#/22/23MB,St.LouisSK;#6–ArborfieldSK,SkeenaBC;#7–CentralKootenayBC,KitimatBC.

Community Cluster Characteristics

Questions?