Canada’s Co-Op Movement Enters New Era With CMC Launch On April 1
A new era will soon begin for Canada's co-operative movement with the launch of Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC) on April 1. For the first time, co-operative and mutual enterprises in every sector and every region of Canada will be represented by a single national bilingual organization.
CMC will assume responsibility for the Canada-based work of its two founding organizations, the Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA) and the Conseil canadien de la coopération et de la mutualité (CCCM).
The CCA and CCCM activities that will move to CMC will include government relations, co-op development in Canada, research and education, and facilitating communication and dialogue among Canadian co-operatives. CMC will also represent the Canadian co-op movement at the International Co-operative Alliance (ICA).
As a celebration of CMC’s beginning, the association’s newly-crafted logo, branding and web site will be unveiled at an event in Ottawa on April 1 at 5 p.m. EST. The new CMC identity has been built to support efforts by the ICA to establish a broad based co-op identity, while representing our Canadian heritage and organizational history.
CMC’s new web site, canada.coop, will serve all participants in Canada’s co-operative economy in Canada as a showcase, as a learning network and as a bilingual resource for co-operatives and mutuals.
"This will be a truly historic occasion, one that many co-operators in Canada have been awaiting for a long, long time," said Denyse Guy, CMC’s interim executive director. "It will make our movement stronger, more cohesive and more dynamic than it has ever been before. We are writing a new and exciting chapter in the history of the co-operative movement, and I’m proud to be a part of it."
CCA will continue to exist to carry out its international development activities, aimed at using the co-operative model to alleviate poverty around the world.
Source: Cooperative News Brief