Industry Canada
ic.gc.ca
Common menu bar links
What is a Cooperative?
It is an enterprise, or business, owned by an association of persons seeking to satisfy common needs (access to products or services, sale of their products or services, employment, etc.).
This association includes one or more kinds of users or stakeholders in the enterprise, such as:
- consumers who use the enterprise to acquire products or services (such as a retail housing, health-care or day-care cooperative);
- producers (such as independent entrepreneurs, artisans or farmers) who use the enterprise to process and market the goods or services they have produced, or to buy products or services necessary to their professional activities; or
- workers who use the enterprise to secure their employment and control their working conditions.
Cooperatives operate democratically (one person, one vote) through two bodies: general meetings of the members or delegates, and the board of directors, at least two-thirds of whom are members elected at a general meeting. The delegate structure may reflect the size of the organization or the distance covered by the cooperative and include more than one delegate for each organization or territory represented.
The cooperative's start-up capital usually comes from cooperative shares purchased by members. Federal cooperatives, however, can raise capital by issuing investment shares to members or non-members.
Each member's liability is limited to the amount of his or her share in the capital. Each member has only one vote regardless of his or her capital contribution.
*Note that "cooperative" may also be spelled "co-operative." Corporations Canada has chosen this spelling to be consistent with the Canada Cooperatives Act.
