It is with great sadness that we note the passing of cooperator Robert (Bob) Arthur Williams on July 7th, aged 91.

Among his diverse work and many accomplishments -too many to list comprehensively here- Bob Williams served as a city planner for Delta, an alderman (as they were then called) for the City of Vancouver, the Chair of the Insurance Corporation of British Columbia, the Chair of the Board of Directors of Vancity, and -in particular- the senior cabinet minister in British Columbia’s first NDP government from 1972 to 1975, where he served as Minister of Lands, Forests and Water Resources, as well as Minister of Recreation and Conservation.

Bob was also a successful entrepreneur, with a particular interest in drinking establishments. Under his ownership, The Railway Club was a Vancouver live music institution and a den of conviviality.

Bob played the critical role in the establishment of the Agricultural Land Reserve, the creation of numerous provincial parks, and the development of Robson Square, Whistler (the province’s first resort municipality), and Surrey Central. There’s also the BC Assessment Authority, CRAB Park, the Seabus, and and and etc. 

Bob was the rarest of creatures -a social entrepreneur, operating at the confluence of market, public, and civic spheres creating economic, public and civic wealth. 

Rejecting conventional extractive economic frameworks, and deriding economic development models relying on attracting “a man on a white horse with sacks of money,” Bob was a keen investor in individuals and communities by uncovering markets, creating mechanisms to support and sustain local investment, creating opportunities for meaningful participation, and developing individual and institutional capacities, all in the service of long-term and inclusive social and economic returns.

This creativity was particularly evident in Bob’s role as a credit unionist and cooperator.

Seeing the need for a better capacity to finance and scale local opportunities, in the 1980s Bob led the Action Slate on the Vancity Board of Directors, steering that institution away from serious financial difficulty and towards a critical role in community economic development.

As Chair of the Board, Bob was incredibly demanding and notoriously difficult to please. For example, smug reports of 0% commercial loan defaults were greeted with disappointment (an understatement) and mere proof that not enough risk was being taken. 

If ideas are ships, Bob launched armadas, interconnected projects that broadened objectives and opportunities. Hence the creation of the Vancity Community Foundation, Vancity Enterprises -a property development wing- and the Vancity Capital Corporation (VCC), a subordinated debt investment bank.

It was the development of VCC that led Bob to seek out models of regional economic development institutions. This pursuit brought him to the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy, one of the world’s best expressions of a cooperative economy at scale and a place that reflected his own “free market socialism.” A partnership with the BC Co-operative Association (BCCA) and the University of Bologna established the Emilia-Romagna Cooperative Study Tour (“The Bologna Program”) in 2002, with the goals of raising awareness of the co-op model and its unique socio-economic returns, and applying the Emilian approach in British Columbia.

Between his two stints on the Vancity Board of Directors, Bob served as Vancity’s Senior Research Fellow. This was essentially a mini “skunkworks,” a project development shop where Bob’s keen, problem-solving and relentlessly active imagination flowed like a river finding its way over and around obstacles to the opportunity .

It was in this role that Bob led the articulation of the Greater Vancouver Economic Council (GVEC), a region-wide economic development agency. Intended to rise above municipal competition for external investment, GVEC was grounded in the inherent bi-nodality of our region, with centres in Vancouver and Surrey, and a robust and decidedly non-conventional business plan heavily influenced by Emilia-Romagna’s community-oriented development approach. While this project did not reach the finish line, it remains a clear and ambitious vision for a regional economic development capacity still lacking in Greater Vancouver. 

For years, the Bologna Program included a Vancouver component featuring Italian academics, including Stefano Zamagni, Vera Negri Zamagni, and Pier Luigi Sacco. Sacco’s work on creative economies inspired Bob to commission Sacco for what became The Power of the Arts in Vancouver, an analysis of Vancouver’s role as a significant cultural producer, an exploration of the local dynamics limiting the impact of that capacity, and a strategy for bridging that gap. In classic Williams style, it was well received and ruffled feathers. Its argument that creative production is the main driver of modern economies remains relevant almost 20 years after its publication. 

The Bologna Program carried on as a Vancity and University of Bologna partnership through to 2019. All told, some 450 people participated on the tour, including Vancity board directors, executives, and junior staff, elected officials, labour leaders, and broad representation from civil society. Many are leaders in the cooperative movement or are allies supporting the movement.

A tremendous education opportunity on viable alternatives to extractive economics, the Bologna Program directly supported the creation of new co-ops and served as the framework for the strategy to develop a cooperative ecosystem for British Columbia. The provincial funding of the BCCA coordinated Alliance for Cooperative Development in 2022 is a legacy of the study tour, a Bologense-style complementary network built on social capital, with a heavy representation of Bologna alumni, partnering with elected provincial officials who are themselves Bologna alumni. 

And the legacy continues. Look for the release of Complex Networks for Cooperative Economies, an BCCA/Alliance-funded initiative assessing the robustness of British Columbia’s cooperative movement against the standard set by Emilia-Romagna and others. 

While we mourn Bob’s passing, we celebrate and take inspiration from his foresight, leadership, and lasting accomplishments, his mentorship, energetic approach, and unassailable ideas.

Elvezio Del Bianco

MEMORIAL SERVICE for BOB WILLIAMS
September 16 2024, 1:00 PM
Unitarian Church of Vancouver
49th at Oak