FROM THE CANADIAN CO-OPERATIVE ASSOCIATION:

No Movement On Key Co-Op Issues In Federal Budget

As promised by Finance Minister Jim Flaherty, the third Conservative government budget was a low-key affair. The seven major co-operative organizations — Canadian Co-operative Association, Conseil Canadien de la Coopération, Credit Union Central of Canada, Desjardins Group, The Co-operators Group, Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada, and the Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation — had asked the government to move on three priority issues: 1) A renewed and expanded Co-operative Development Initiative (CDI) 2) A federal Co-operative Investment Plan (CIP) 3) Increased spending on International Development Aid None of these were forthcoming in the February 26 budget. While the Federal government has promised to continue the CDI program for one year, until the whole of the Agricultural Policy Framework is renewed in April 2009, there is neither a commitment to an expanded five-year CDI nor details on the one-year renewal in the budget. This means CCA and Conseil Canadien de la Coopération (CCC) will have to continue their campaign for a renewed and expanded CDI that can meet the demand for help in setting up new co-operatives. The old CDI helped established almost 150 new co-ops and provided aid to some 1,000 new and emerging co-ops. The proposal is been backed by all major co-operative financial and non-financial organizations. CCA, CCC and the Canadian Federation of Agriculture jointly lobbied for a federal Co-operative Investment Plan that could leverage new investment from members of agricultural and worker co-ops in return for tax credits. But the CIP, which would have cost about $20 million per year, was not established and so only Quebec continues to have such a program. As for International Development Aid, while the government is committed to double international assistance by 2010-11 and did announce $100 million in new aid for Afghanistan, overall government spending on aid will be lower next year — 0.3 per cent of Gross National Income compared with the current level of 0.33 per cent this year. This is still very far from Stephen Harper’s election promise to reach the OECD spending average of 0.44 per cent.

FROM CCEDNet:

Community Economic Development Organizations: Harper’s ‘Prudent’ Budget Neglects Communities in Need

Victoria, BRITISH COLUMBIA - The federal budget announcement offers little to assist Canada’s poorest communities, say members of the Canadian Community Economic Development Network (CCEDNet). CCEDNet - representing the interests of thousands of community economic development organizations - believes the ‘prudent’ measures outlined in the federal budget do not take into consideration the immediate needs of Canada’s poor. To read the rest of the news release, please click here.

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