ICA-Americas interviewed Claude Gauthier, CCA’s new president and chairman
In his new position as the Canadian Co-operative Association's chairman and president, Claude Gauthier, a long-time leader in Ontario’s agricultural co-op community, has a lot of work to do. One of his aims is to craft the path toward a stronger, more united co-operative movement. Whether this is an easy task or not, the truth is, he seems to have what the Canadian movement needs: he is humble, has the ability to communicate and work with others and the strong belief that co-operatives are much more than a way of achieving material goals.
In the middle 1970s Claude Gauthier took part in the “Development Camp for Youth and Co-ops” and this first exposure to co-operative leadership seems to have been a turning point in his life. “When I went to my Youth Camp I was 15 years old and I started to understand the principles of co-operatives. I could say it made me a better person in the sense of having an ability to work with others to get things done. I discovered I can stand up, speak, and represent other people" he said.
Gauthier explained his real involvement started in 1991 as a volunteer in a board for an agricultural supply co-op in Ontario. In the 1990s he served as president of United Co-operatives of Ontario (UCO) and joined GROWMARK in 1994, where he has been the Ontario Region Manager. He is really proud and appreciates this opportunity to be part of the movement in Canada and internationally. “I was a young farmer in Earlton, Ontario and now I’m leader of a large organization that has an impact throughout the world. As an individual, this is a great opportunity to expand my own horizons and help the movement at the same time.” The newly elected president described his present role as both, a pleasure and a challenge. “It is an important position and there are serious things we have to do in the future but within a very good and solid organization.”
His current work with CCA involves a variety of activities. The main focus is to lead the board on decision-making and direction, as well as allocation of the Association’s resources. It also implies representing the organization with the membership across Canada as a spokesperson “I think I’m good at helping boards focus on the key decision items. That leads to good decisions. I also enjoy the representation role”.
In his view, one of the priorities for the movement in Canada is related to the complexity of being a bilingual country. Canada has two national co-op associations: CCA and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité (CCCM), which represents French-speaking co-operatives. “There is an opportunity to create unity between the two associations. To create one body that speaks on behalf of all Canadian co-operatives and that will lead to better use of all our resources”, he said. The pursuit of a common approach in the representation of Canadian co-operatives started several years ago. However, “now is when both organizations are prepared to look at strong, high level discussions about doing things together better”, Gauthier explained.
It is well known the co-operative sector in Canada offers ‘cradle to grave’ services so that a Canadian can be born in a co-operative health facility, eat co-operative grown food, shop at co-operatives, bank with a credit union and select a co-operative funeral home. “One of our biggest strengths is our ability to work from coast to coast, across the country. We have a vast network reaching out to all parts of Canada, a very big country, with many different populations and needs. The Association has been very good at reaching out -through its network- to a lot of citizens.”
Despite the fact that co-operatives are quite present everywhere and the vast majority of the population is a member of a co-operative, there is a point where people do not realize the value co-ops have in their day-to-day life. “One of our main weaknesses is the fact that, as we have gone to prosperity in Canada, it seems that our Canadian population is less interested in sustaining their co-ops. Because we are so comfortable we take it for granted and as a result, co-op importance diminished.”
The lack of participation in social movements is a sign of the times worldwide, so it is no surprise that it is hard to get the membership enthused or committed to being part of decision-making processes within the Canadian co-op movement". “At our annual meetings we have a small percentage of the members coming to them. One of our challenges is to educate Canadians to the fact that they need to stay involved to maintain their co-ops. Through promotion, education and messaging, CCA has to continue to remind the population co-ops exist, are doing well, and play an important role in their lives”.
For co-ops it is a never ending challenge to be seen and heard. Even though co-operatives are present everywhere in Canada, they are not highly visible. “Sometimes you’ve seen something so many times that you don’t see it anymore. You go to do business and you forget it is your co-op, it is ‘do business’, it becomes routine. The co-op difference is not clearly stated and understood. It’s all around us, we use it everyday, but we don’t appreciate it" he said.
Competing with million of bytes of information from a countless variety of organizations, the task becomes more and more demanding. "Over time we continue to create and identify moments like Co-op Week, which takes place each October, to get co-operatives together and remind their members and the population that we are a co-operative, we are proud of co-operatives, and we are doing great things for our members."
Naturally, the conversation ICA-Americas Newsletter had with Claude Gauthier could not escape the buzz topic: the economic crisis and the recession. Gauthier made a clever observation about the reasons why most co-operatives have gone through it quite well. “Probably the main reason is that the nature of the things we do are more about fundamental needs. Most of our co-ops provide basic items such as food and energy to their members.”
Gauthier remarked that even when the credit union movement has had some challenges as a result of the financial crisis, they are still in a very solid position to do business with Canadians. “The organization I work for, the agricultural supply co-op GROWMARK, is going to have its first best year ever. After a record year last year! We are still in very good standing”.
The year 2009 has been an important one for co-operatives in Canada. CCA is celebrating 100 years of providing advocacy, training, and networking opportunities for the co-operative sector. Canada being a young country, 100 years is a long time in its history, and, of course, a reason to celebrate. “Back in June, we highlighted some of the key moments of our development in Canada, we recognized the top fourteen individual leaders that helped us get where we are and it was a beautiful party; but now we are working on 101st ”, said Gauthier. As all of us know, the cooperative movement needs to be permanently looking forward.
