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The Co-operative Alternative To Public Service Delivery

The co-operative model has been used as a method to deliver public services for over a century. Therefore, co-operatives have accumulated a wealth of experience in the provision of public services ranging from social housing, child care and health services to the provision of transit services, resource management, local government (school board, municipality) procurement and public utilities (gas, waste management, water, telephone, cable, etc.)

What Is A Co-operative:

A co-operative is an enterprise owned and democratically controlled by the users of the goods and services provided. Users can be consumers, employees or producers of products and services.

Why Consider Co-operatives In Alternate Service Delivery?

Co-operatives offer governments and citizens a tested approach to service delivery that puts citizens first.

Co-operatives ensure control by users of the service and that the product or services will meet user needs.
Co-operatives have both a social and economic mandate. This mirrors the most important function of the public sector which tries to balance social and economic development with the highest public benefits.
The democratic structure of co-operatives makes the service provider accountable to citizens.
Co-operatives provide an organizational structure which encourages citizen involvement.
Before governments became involved in some social programs, often, these services were provided through co-operatives or similar organizations.
In many cases, co-operatives were the prototypes for services and social programs currently provided by the state.
In certain situations, studies have shown that co-operatives provide a more efficient service than either government or for-profit private models.

Existing Applications

Public service co-operatives are one of the most promising growth areas for co-operatives in Canada.

The Community Health Care Services Association in Saskatoon is a health care co-operative which provides primary health care services to over 25,000 patients. Emphasis is on prevention and education.
Coopérative informatique municipale ltée provides informatics services to 25 francophone municipalities (all members of the Association des municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick.) Their main product is accounting software which they have developed specifically for municipalities.
Utilities Co-operatives have been in place for many years in all regions of Canada providing households with electricity and gas distribution, telephone services, waterworks and sewage services, fire services, etc. In this area, more than 400 co-operatives serve almost 150,000 households.

Potential Development

The restructuring of many public services offer new options for co-operative ventures.

Ownership of public facilities such as airports, ports, harbours.
Maintenance or operation services of public facilities such as national parks, museums, etc.
Community economic development co-operatives which focus on industrial development and job creation in local communities.
Networks of small and medium businesses which focus on activities such as marketing, joint purchasing and sharing expertise in order to improve the competitiveness of the SMEs.

For more information, contact Alain Roy,
Co-operatives Secretariat at (613) 759-7197
or email: royalai@em.agr.ca