The central credit unions of B.C. and Ontario will officially merge on July 1, creating a new Vancouver-based entity with aspirations to become a national financial-sector force. Credit Union Central of B.C. and Credit Union Central of Ontario will join forces to create Central 1 Credit Union — providing banking, treasury and trade services to … Continued
Grameen Bank, the brainchild of microfinance guru Mohammed Yunus,
lends money to the poorest people in the world. Its 7.5 million clients
are people who not only have no assets and no jobs, but in many cases
they have never even handled money before. Yunus himself describes
these borrowers as "sub sub sub subprime." The loans are based on
nothing more than trust, yet they are paid back an astonishing 98% of
the time, at rates of interest as high as 20%. This is not a charity.
Grameen is a business with a social goal–to eliminate poverty–and it
Sointula – On May 31, the Sointula Co-operative Store Association became the first retailer in British Columbia to eliminate the use of plastic bags for carrying groceries, a move they hope other retailers will follow. "We wanted to see less garbage going into the landfill on our island, so we decided to eliminate the use … Continued
Under the leadership of its Co-Chair, Sid Gould, InsideArt Cooperative has been successful in stating its case to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that this non-profit cooperative is not subject to the payment of corporate tax on its net income. InsideArt was counseled by an accountant specialized in co-op taxation that it must file a … Continued
KITCHENER The strawberries are ripe, the tomatoes are plump and the lettuce is crisp. All they need now are buyers. A new co-operative of Waterloo, Perth and Wellington county organic farmers are hoping to gather a critical mass of residents who want to eat locally grown, pesticide and fertilizer-free foods on a weekly basis. For … Continued
TRURO – Nova Scotia’s co-op businesses are reporting significant growth at a time when the economy is suspected to be slowing down. Speaking at the 59th annual meeting for the Nova Scotia Co-operative council in Truro, council CEO Dianne Kelderman announced a business growth of 5.6 per cent. This equates to an increase of $80 … Continued
THE WORD "values" has been thrown around a lot in business circles over the past few years. Everyone talks about them. Everyone has them written down. I was beginning to think they were just words in a corporate annual report. But values have meaning, and the recent subprime mortgage crisis has taught us that. Many … Continued
VANCOUVER — What was once considered trash has become treasure for B.C. restaurateurs. Until recently, vats of old cooking oil had to be hauled away – at a cost. But the detritus of a million French fries is now liquid gold, with companies competing to buy the leftover grease to convert it into biodiesel, an … Continued
If Joni Mitchell were to rewrite her hit Big Yellow Taxi, she might be inclined to call it Little Green Hybrid instead. It wouldn’t be nearly as catchy and it has a strange Martian ring to it, but with fuel costs and greenhouse gases both crowding the upper atmosphere, it might prove more accurate as … Continued
(Kelowna) Four cooperative packinghouses today executed the final legal agreement for their amalgamation. The Okanagan Tree Fruit Cooperative is the culmination of decades of consolidation and mergers in the tree fruit packinghouse industry. The new cooperative will receive, store, grade and pack over 130,000 tons of tree fruits consisting of conventional and organic apples, pears, … Continued