The Inuit Co-operative Movement in Northern Canada, 1959-1968

The Inuit Co-operative Movement in Northern Canada,1959-1968

Marianne P. STOPP1

Introduction2

This study outlines the evolution and impacts of the Inuit co-operative movement inCanada’s North from its beginnings in the late 1950s through to 1968. The Inuit co-operatives’ development evolved out of historic co-operative movements abroad and inCanada as early as the 1840s in the form of farmer-owned dairy and cheese factories,co-operative stores, and insurance companies.3 Of the 46 co-operatives currentlyoperating in communities in the North, each experienced a unique developmentaltrajectory. Co-operatives are a positive aspect of northern life and have brought ameasure of independence and self-reliance. Their success must nevertheless also beviewed within an ongoing context of unacceptably low standards of living in the Northand a consequent range of complex social challenges. These are issues that fall beyondthe scope of this study but that continue to frame northern life, despite the manycontributions of the co-operative system.

Many individuals - men, women, Aboriginal, and non-Aboriginal - contributed years ofeffort towards the success of co-operative enterprise in the North. It is a fact thatsoutherners figure most frequently in the literature, a situation that will hopefully beremedied as more histories are written from the perspectives of community co-opsupporters. The following sections begin with a history of co-operative acceptance andexpansion in northern Canada followed by an examination of the role of co-operativesin northern self-determination, and in the growth and health of northern communities.

A history of the co-operative among Northern Inuit

Inuit have been path breakers in co-operative enterprise; their story is one of themost amazing in Canadian co-operative history in the last fifty years; it is one ofthe most remarkable examples of Aboriginal entrepreneurship in the world today(MacPherson, 2001: 4).

The first northern co-operative opened in 1959 at Kangiqsualujjuaq (George River) innorthern Quebec (Figure 1). It was a char fishery and lumber co-operative, started byrepresentatives from the Department of Northern Affairs and National Resources inpartnership with dedicated residents of the George River area. Over the next few years,the co-operative movement developed rapidly across the North. By 1963, there were

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In: The Amazing Power of Cooperatives, M-J. Brassard, E. Molina (eds.). 2012. Quebec, 2012 International Summit of Cooperatives pp. 619-634, at http://www.sommetinter.coop/files/live/sites/somint/files/articles/42-Stopp.pdf

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16 co-operatives with 500 paid-up memberships (a family held one share) representingone out of five Inuit families. In 1963, the opportunity arose for co-op representativesfrom across the North to come together at an historic meeting in Iqaluit to discusscommonly held issues of both a cooperative and community nature. This conferencewas an historic occasion, the first time in history when Inuit from across the CanadianNorth were able to assemble and establish still-held ties.

At a second meeting held in 1966 in Puvirnituq, the northern co-operative movemententered a political phase. Delegates from Inuit, northern First Nations communities, thefederal government, and the Co-operative Union of Canada discussed the formation ofa co-operative federation that would offer central services, information, and professionaladvice. A year later, the five co-operatives in northern Quebec elected to form their ownfederation, the Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec (FCNQ). Those in theNorthwest Territories operated as independent units until 1972, when territorialco-operative legislation enabled the formation of the Canadian Arctic CooperativesFederation Limited (CACFL), today known as Arctic Co-operatives Limited (ACL).

By 1969, there were 30 co-ops in the North (see Table 1). By 1976 there were tenmember co-operatives in the FCNQ, and 41 co-operatives in the CACFL. In 1982, theFCNQ had 12 members, while the CACFL had dropped to 33. Total business growthbetween 1959 and 1980, however, was astonishing, with gross volume of sales risingfrom $360,000 in 1963 to $27 million in 1980, and with community payouts beginningat $135,000 in 1963 and increasing to $9.1 million in 1980 (Stager, 1985: 3-6); Mitchell,1996: 180).4 In 2010, there were 46 co-operatives across the Canadian North (Figure 1).These measurable successes were also accompanied by increased community stability,political strength, and a diversity of social capital.

The northern co-operative movement is tied to changing perceptions of the North byprovincial and federal government bodies. The federal government’s post-World War IIawareness of sovereignty along its northern coastline developed alongside increases inlong-range air traffic, the Cold War’s threat to Canada’s northern boundary, and strategicborder protection. The subsequent appearance of military establishments, regular airlineroutings, and the expansion and centralization of settlement and civil services led to therecognition that northern communities needed assistance (Stager, 1985: 39). Furtherinterest in the North came with Prime Minister John Diefenbaker’s New National Policy,which provided access to northern resources by private enterprise. Initiatives were begunto develop transportation to, and within, the North, and new regulations opened vastareas in the Yukon and the Northwest Territories to oil and gas exploration anddevelopment (Mitchell, 1996: 113).

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Along with social services to northern peoples during the 1950s came an influx of civilservants. Yellowknife became the administrative centre for the Northwest Territories,Aklavik for the western Arctic, and Frobisher Bay (today’s Iqaluit) for the eastern region.Many Inuit, who had been nomadic, settled in satellite camps of expanding towns andefforts were made by government to stimulate local economies and create wage labour.

In order to address the economic prospects of the Inuit, in 1952 the federal governmentformed an Eskimo Affairs Committee made up of missionaries and traders who had livedin the North. Its primary outcome was the recognition that a more diversified economywas needed that was not focused solely on white fox trapping. In 1953, the Eskimo LoanFund was established to bring banking facilities to the North and support businessdevelopment. In the years that followed, several unsuccessful attempts were made todevelop small industries: Pigs were sent to Great Whale River, and chickens and sheepto Fort Chimo where they were eaten by dogs; efforts were made to spin and weave thehair of huskies and musk oxen; cattle were crossbred with Tibetan yak in hopes ofdeveloping an Arctic-adapted species; blueberries were harvested, and seal, whale, andfish products were canned at Rankin Inlet. A tannery operated for a year at Aklavik, anda canoe manufactory operated for a short time at Great Whale River. Most successfulwas the export of char in 1958 to restaurants in Montréal and Toronto, which appearsto have provided the impetus to pursue other resource-based initiatives (Mitchell, 1996:148-149, 157).

Eventually, three areas of development were identified that included improvedharvesting of renewable resources by Inuit, expansion of capital investments such asairfields, communications, and health services, and planning for non-renewable resourceexploitation (although the latter two would be only tangentially advantageous to Inuit).Tourism framed these plans as did eiderdown harvesting and handicraft production. DonSnowdon, first head of the Industrial Division at the Department of Indian and NorthernAffairs (DIAND), recommended a co-operative organizational structure for someenterprises (Mitchell, 1996: 157). Snowdon undertook several trips to Inuit communitiesto seek approval and within three years a dozen co-operatives had formed.

All co-operatives in the North had certain features in common. First, they weredependent upon government support in the form of financing for initial capital outlay(which in no way set them apart from resource industry development in the North). Theyreceived technical support in areas of accounting, pricing, and correspondence withoutside dealers, and some supervision or management of the business in order tomanipulate outside markets successfully. They also relied upon access to airtransportation and shipping for distribution to widespread communities, perhaps themost costly factors.



Outsiders such as Oblate missionaries, government officials, or Royal Canadian MountedPolice officers were initially involved with all of the earliest northern co-operatives, whileartistic managers or technicians managed Inuit art production. Within a few years ofinception, managing positions were largely held by Inuit women and men such as JosiePamiortok Tullaugak from Puvirnituq, who played an important role in setting up andmanaging the local co-op and the Caisse Populaire, and early Puvirnituq co-op managerTamusi Qurnak and assistant Lizzie Qurnaluk Nowyakadlak, among many others.

It cannot be emphasised enough that the success of the co-operatives lay in thecommitment of Inuit as organizers, producers, and purchasers. Co-op beginnings werehumble affairs and the result of commitment and working together, often under difficultcircumstances. The example of Holman (Ulukhaktok) Co-op’s start-up as related by FatherHenri Tardy illustrates the social and economic contexts that fuelled the co-op movementat the community level. It also demonstrates the necessary interplay on the part of Inuit,non-Inuit and government towards a mutual future:

The villagers of Holman were in dire need of money. Tuberculosis was increasing,the igloo dwelling was inadequate. Trapping was poor, the white fox furridiculously low in price. There was no commercial value to seal pelts and fish netswere most expensive. To secure the necessities of life, I used to encourage ouroccasional visitor to buy a piece of local handicraft. I prompted an aged Eskimo tofashion some traditional lamps out of limestone. This soon became a work of art.Out of these meagre beginnings, the Holman Eskimo Co-operative was born … AsI was searching for a way of tanning seal skins, I met Paul Godt, a co-op specialistemployed by the government, who insisted we should organize a co-operativesociety. Six of us, pooling ten dollars each, formed our co-op. It was 1961. Weborrowed money from the Eskimo Loan Fund, thus permitting us to pay for sealskinrugs and sculptures (Mitchell, 1996: 172).

The two federations, the FCNQ and the CACFL (today’s ACL), were the glue that held theearly co-operatives together as functioning organizations rather than as isolated andindependent community associations. The federations provided a range of vital servicesthat included bulk buying, warehouse assembly and sorting, and all-important sealiftand airlift management. They also offered central accounting, audit services, andeducational departments, and received and marketed all northern products such ascarvings, prints, crafts, and fish (Stager, 1982: 10).

The following two sub-sections provide a more in-depth history of co-operativedevelopment in Quebec and the Northwest Territories, respectively, while a final sub-sectiondiscusses the central role of Inuit art in the early co-operative movement of the North.



Co-operatives in Quebec

The first two co-ops in northern Quebec were in Kangiqsualujjuaq (1959) and Puvirnituq(1960).5 Today there are 14 member co-operatives (Table 1; Figure 1). The early co -operatives expanded from single-function fishing, lumbering, and soapstone carvingoperations to multi-functional producers, marketers, and service co-operatives thatpurchased and sold furs, and ran retail stores, art programs, craft distribution, servicecontracts, and hotels.

The FCNQ formed as a result of the Second Conference of Arctic Co-operatives atPuvirnituq in 1966 (above). Co-op representatives from northern Quebec took advantageof existing provincial laws (in place due to the efforts of Alphonse Desjardins) andestablished the Fédération des Coopératives du Nouveau-Québec. Its leaders immediatelybegan a process of becoming independent from all forms of outside aid. By the 1970s,the FCNQ depended only upon provincial funding for a small number of operating costs.A successful co-op education program was begun to train officers and managers at Lévis.The relationship between the co-ops and the federation was, and continues to be, basedupon service. From the outset, the FCNQ provided a broad range of services to itsmember co-operatives that included accounting, retail store developments, education,tourism, production services, petroleum product distribution, and general co-ordinationof all co-op activities. Later, it also provided travel and construction services (Okrant,1972: Section 6, 2-4).

Even before the FCNQ’s formation, two co-operatives, Puvirnituq and Ivujivik, alreadyhad contracts with Shell Oil to distribute fuel (Tulugak and Murdoch, 2007: 231). Carvingrepresented a large proportion of profits in the early years and provided substantialequity towards co-operative expansion and financing the federation. In the mid 1970s,retail store sales began to generate more revenues than carving. FCNQ set up a financecompany using surpluses from the co-ops’ insurance funds and the insurance funds inturn generated preferred shares and a retirement fund. By 1987, the federation hadnegotiated the purchase of Shell Oil installations from the provincial government at anominal fee, and with resultant high profits.

Co-operatives in the Northwest Territories

The first co-operatives in the Northwest Territories were at Killineq Island (Port Burwell),and Cape Dorset in 1959. Within a decade, most communities in the NorthwestTerritories had their own co-op. Twenty years later, there had been, at one time oranother, 10 Dene co-ops and 31 Inuit co-ops, and today there are 32 operating co-ops(Table 1; Figure 1).6



The co-operative system in the Territories had somewhat different beginnings than itscounterpart in northern Quebec. Throughout its early years, from 1959 to the early1970s, support from the territorial government was guarded. In the 1960s, a Yellowknifenewspaper, a member of municipal council, and the territorial commissioner publiclystated that co-ops were Trojan horses for socialism (MacPherson, 2001: 5). Fundingopportunities were nearly non-existent and had to come from corporate bodies (ratherthan co-operative financial structures ratified by territorial legislation).7 Independencewas still evident upon the formation of the CACFL in 1972. That year, Northern ImagesStores8 retail outlets were opened to market Inuit prints, carvings, and other artproduction at a time when a federal parallel, Canadian Arctic Producers, had been doingthe same work since 1966 (Mitchell, 1996: 229-231; MacPherson 1984: 171;MacPherson, 2001). Northern Images outlets were opened in Whitehorse, Yellowknife,Churchill, Inuvik, Cambridge Bay, and later in Edmonton. The Northern Images initiativewas a successful upstart that earned the CACFL more than $1.5 million by 1980, its netearnings covering 10 percent of the entire costs of the CACFL’s operations (Stager, 1982:81). Independence was also expressed by the CACFL’s efforts to control its means oftransportation, perhaps the single most costly factor in running a northern business, bypurchasing a DC-4 airplane, a venture that was opposed by the territorial government(Mitchell, 1996: 231-234).

In 1981, Canadian Arctic Producers and CACFL joined to form today’s ArcticCo-operatives Limited. ACL is a federation of co-operatives located in Nunavut and theNorthwest Territories. It serves as a central marketing and purchasing agency, providingmember co-operatives with a variety of services including procurement of merchandise,operational and technical support, and other types of assistance. Situated in Winnipeg,ACL administers 36 member co-operatives, which in turn operate a variety of initiativesfrom retail stores, fuel services, and craft production to marketing and hotels.9

Northern Co-operatives, Inuit Self-Determination, and the Growth andHealth of Communities

We felt we were losing our old way of life and with it the ability to control ourown survival. We felt more and more under the control of “bosses” that knewlittle of our culture and our way of life. When we began to hear aboutcooperatives, it seemed to us that this system would give us a way to regain someof the control we previously had (Tulugak and Murdoch, 2007: 12).

Co-operatives were vehicles for social change especially in the way they redefined therelationship between Inuit members and non-Inuit. Former hierarchical and asymmetricalrelations as in missionary: catechist, or post trader: indebted trapper shifted as



relationships re-aligned in the context of cooperation. An Inuit man or woman, forinstance, had as much influence through their voice and vote as a non-Inuit member(Vallee, 1968: 219-221).10 The co-operative model for the North suited traditional Inuitsocial organization, equating traditional band and camp sharing practices with the “EachFor All”11 premise of the co-op. The ACL has noted the compatibility of the co-operativemodel to Inuit worldview:

The Co-operative principles and structure that we adopted in our new businesseswere very close to that of our sharing culture … Our members did not want peoplefrom outside their communities coming in and establishing businesses to provideservices. We wanted to develop the services ourselves. We wanted to keep theprofits from any businesses in our communities and we wanted to use those profitsto develop new and better services. We also wanted to provide employment forour members of our communities. The Co-operative model was the best way forus to meet these goals.12

This new form of enterprise also introduced subtle differences to traditional Inuit structures.A relationship based on marketing of goods differed from traditional distribution definedby the sharing of commodities along kinship or status lines of relations. In the early co-opdays, hunters continued to share beyond their own households but wage earners, such ascarvers or store clerks in the co-operative were not obligated to do this. The co-op,however, gave hunters a socially recognized right to put their yield on the market (throughthe co-op) to be sold for cash (Vallee, 1968: 222-223).

The co-operative movement was pivotal to the growth of northern self-determinationand the eventual recognition of Nunavik and the formation of Nunavut (MacPherson,2001: 5). Canadian sociologist Frank Vallee described how, at many of the co-operativemeetings he attended in the North, discussion often shifted from the terms of referenceof the co-operative itself to unrelated but nevertheless important community matters.Viewed as an absolutely positive development, the co-operative served as “integrativeand coordinative machinery for the whole community.”13 Successful co-operativemovements have always had a political side, the Grain Growers’ Grain Company beingone Canadian example. In the North, political strength grew alongside successful co-operatives, becoming “underground governments” as noted by Thomas Sulluk and abasis for pan-Inuit solidarity that had no historic precedent (Mitchell, 1993: 346; Mitchell,1996).

Co-ops in the Northwest Territories provided employment to some 2,000 people in the1960s, a figure that includes the artists and other producers. In 1980, about 350 full-time employees worked for co-ops, earning an average income of close to $10,000.



More than 800 full- and part-time people are employed in the northern co-op networktoday, and membership is more than 15,000 (this figure does not include the artists andother producers).14 Outside of government, from their inception, co-operatives werethe largest employers in the North and unlike government, in excess of 90 percent ofthe employees were local people (MacPherson, 2001: 7; Mitchell, 1996: 185; Stager,1982: 111; Stager, 1985: 8). Political consciousness grew out of this experiencedgeneration of co-op-trained Inuit. The co-operative movement was central to thedeepening Inuit/Inuvialuit sense of identity of the 1960s and later, and was evident inthe development of the Inuit Tapirisat and the emergence of land claims issues thatculminated in the formation of Nunavut (MacPherson, 2001: 6). In Quebec in the early1970s, the co-operatives eventually urged community councils to join them inpetitioning the provincial government for regional government status, and firstadvanced the issue of self-determination in Quebec. This initiative was galvanized in1970 by the proposed James Bay hydroelectric project, which culminated in the JamesBay and Northern Quebec Agreement and the recognition of Nunavik (Mitchell, 1993:346; Stager, 1982: vii).15

Education and training have been a continuing factor in the operation of co-ops of bothfederations, and reflect key principles of the co-operative movement. Co-operativestrained an unknown but significant number of northerners for holding political officeand for engaging in other kinds of economic activities. Many present-day politicians,legislators, and facilitators of the development corporations in Nunavik, Nunavut, andthe Territories gained their initial training in contemporary political life, community work,and economic affairs through serving on the boards and at the counters of co-ops.16

Recognizing that training was necessary if the co-operative model was to become self-sufficient in the long term (i.e., not become a federal program), the federal governmentset up several training mechanisms through both federations that included in-depthmanagement training programs for northern women and men, and board/membereducation programs, with a high level of commitment from all involved, teachers andtrainees alike. The impact of the management-training program was to direct theattention of the local community and co-op boards toward the importance of takingresponsibility for one’s co-op. By the 1980s, nearly 50 women and men had gone throughthe management training programs in the Northwest Territories, with just over halfremaining with a co-op or with the CACFL, either in management or for ongoing training.In Quebec, the training program begun in the 1960s had nearly 20 graduates by 1974(Stager, 1982: 119-121; Tulugak and Murdoch, 2007: 250-260).

Alongside the quantifiable successes of profits and growth, co-operatives gave northerncommunities social capital through education and development of business skills,fostering community action and leadership. For instance, at a FCNQ general meeting in



the early 1970s, the effect that the co-operatives’ activities had on the socialdevelopment of the people was discussed: “It was seen that activities such as trapping,arts and crafts production, tourist development, and the harvesting and sale ofeiderdown and local foods had a social as well as economic effect” (Tulugak andMurdoch, 2007: 136). From their inception co-operatives contributed significantly tocommunity and social stability:

I am certain that had we not started our cooperative and worked hard to make itsucceed, we would have had to relocate to Kuujjuaq. It is only because of ourefforts in those early days that the town of Kangiqsualujjuaq now exists (Tulugakand Murdoch, 2007: 20).

Conclusion

Northern co-operatives promoted business practices in a context of ethnic identity; anotion iterated well by Louis Tapardjuk, a past president of ACL, who observed, “We’reall aware that the co-op is the best vehicle for joining the two activities of culture andmoney” (Mitchell, 1996: 155). The deep commitment that northern peoples hold to theirco-operative is not readily apparent in much of the literature on the subject, however.Analyses tend to focus on the statistics of co-op employee turnover or co-op profits,and there is a decided emphasis on the machinations of the many federal andterritorial / provincial bodies that became involved in co-operative initiatives over theyears17. Few sources consider the co-op movement from the perspective of the peoplewho were from the beginning ultimately responsible for successful outcome. Thetremendous level of human striving for the success of the co-ops, the considerablepersonal effort and level of commitment of a relatively small population base across anenormous region, working toward a common goal of fiscal self-reliance, are rarelyfigured. Local support and belief in the co-op have, however, had tangible results. Thefollowing account of Aliva Tulugak in Puvirnituq is only one of potentially hundreds ofsimilar individual efforts that led to northern co-operative success:

My father had learned a bit of English, which came in very useful … when he wentto work for the federal day school. The wages were good, plus we were providedwith a house while most of the other families of Puvirnituq still lived in tents origloos… I vaguely remember when my father agreed to work with the cooperative,but I clearly recall that it made a big difference in our lives. We had to move backinto a tent and … my father could no longer afford the 10-cent admission so Icould attend a movie … Of all the people from other villages who were involvedin the cooperative movement, I remember Audla Mark from Ivujivik the mostvividly. He used to stay at our house during the stopovers in Puvirnituq on his waysouth to Lévis to attend co-op meetings and on his way back. What patience he



had! He’d arrive from Lévis in May and have to wait until July before an amphibiousaircraft could fly him home … I remember other people coming to Puvirnituq fromInukjuak, Salluit and Ivujivik to learn how to run their cooperatives…I admiredthem for believing enough in the cooperative system to want to learn things thatwere new and foreign to their way of life (Tulugak and Murdoch, 2007: 7).

In conclusion, in 2009, The Inuit Co-operative Movement in Canada was designated bythe Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada as an event of national historicsignificance. Its significance is found in the democratic and egalitarian principles thattypify co-operative work in the North, which also accord with Inuit social traditions. Thedesignation also recognizes that Inuit communities and individuals acquired the powerto participate effectively in the management of their local economy, and that the co-operative movement fostered new skills and relationships through co-operative trainingand education, thereby becoming a crucial first step in the development of self-government in the North.

Table 1: Northern Co-operatives, 1958-1968 showing year of foundation and activities. An asterisk,*, indicates that a co-op is no longer in operation. (Sources include A. Morrison, pers. comm., ACL,Winnipeg, Oct. 2008; Okrant, 1972; Ketilson and MacPherson, 2001; ACL athttp://www.arcticco-op.com/ acl-about-member-coops.htm; FCNQ at http://fcnq.netc.net)



Figure 1: Location of current co-operatives in the Canadian North managed by the Fédération desCoopératives du Nouveau-Québec and the Arctic Co-operatives Limited (Map template fromwww.atlas.nrcan.gc.ca)



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Notes

1 Heritage Conservation and Commemoration Directorate, Parks Canada2 This research benefited greatly from the encouragements and input of Gordon Fulton, Director(ret’d.), and of Norman Shields, historian, Heritage Conservation and Commemoration Directorate,Parks Canada. For their expertise in the history and workings of the northern co-operative movement,acknowledgements are also extended to: Dr. Ian MacPherson, founder of the British Columbia Institutefor Co-operative Studies, University of Victoria; Andrew Gossaert, C.M., former co-op manager andfirst president of ACL; Andrew Morrison, ACL, Winnipeg; and Quintin Fox, Canadian Co-operativeAssociation, Ottawa.3 A general history of co-operatives as well as an overview of the Canadian Inuit art market and co-operatives are not covered here but can be found in M. Stopp, “The Inuit Co-operative Movement inCanada,” Historical Sites and Monuments Board of Canada, Report 2008-72. Two sources that providevery detailed histories of the northern co-operative movement are Mitchell (1996) and Tulugak andMurdoch (2007).4 Growth in Quebec went from $1.1 million in 1967 to $143 million in 2004 (FCNQ webpage,“History,” at www.fcnq.ca/webconcepteur/web/fcnq, viewed May 2012); In Nunavut and theNorthwest Territories, revenues of member co-ops in 2006 were $136.4 million (Andrew Morrison,ACL, personal communication, 20 October 2008).5 Puvirnituq carvers formed a collective under Father André Steinmann in 1958, which incorporatedin 1960. For a history compiled by a co-op member see Tulugak and Murdoch, (2007: 23-39).6 Stager (1982: 60) noted that the “notion of [Aboriginal] ownership coupled with economicopportunity was highly attractive to resident whites like the missionaries, the R.C.M.P., school teachersand certainly the co-op development officers from Northern Affairs concerned with the well-beingof the people they had come to live among.”7 In 1967, the federal government was preparing to infuse Baffinland Iron Mines with a $25 milliondollar subsidy, despite a world glut of iron ore, while co-ops at Fort Resolution and Fort Rae wererefused financial assistance (Duffy, 1988: 172).8 “Northern Images Stores,” Arctic Co-operatives Limited, at www.arcticco-op.com/services-northern-images-stores.htm, viewed September 2008.9 See more information at “Arctic Co-operatives Limited (ACL),” at www.usaskstudies.coop/social -economy /partners/ACL, viewed September 2008.10 Vallee (1968) also adds that equality in the context of the co-operative existed against a backgroundof real imbalance in many other ways.11 “Each for All and All for Each” was a widely used slogan in the English-Canadian co-operativemovement between 1900 and 1945 (MacPherson, 1979: vi).12 “Our Story,” Arctic Co-operatives Limited, www.arcticco-op.com/about-acl-history.htm, viewedSeptember 2008.13 Co-ops became an inadvertent but integral mechanism for community concerns in the late 1960s.At that time, the federal government was sponsoring local community councils guided by civil-servicefield staff. Residents were invited to consider innocuous if necessary topics such as dog control andgarbage collection but were not included in larger issues such as game management, education, landand resource use, or local government (Vallee, 1968: 225).14 Today’s membership is about 18,000. “Canada’s North,” Arctic Co-operatives Limited, www.arcticco-op.com/ canadas_north.htm, viewed October 2008.15 The James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of the 1970s and the subsequent Nunavik resultedin a form of “three-cornered” governance (northern Inuit in Nunavik, Quebec, and the Governmentof Canada) operating within federal and provincial jurisdictions (Wilson, n.d.: 2).



16 Dr. MacPherson, personal communication, 15 October 2008.17 One reason for the general weakness of the historiography of Canadian co-operation is that thesemovements occurred in less-studied hinterland regions of the country. Their importance to a regionis rarely apparent at the level of Canadian politics, and “they have seldom played a role in ourtraditional views of the past.” (MacPherson, 2007: 8).

Bibliography

DUFFY, R.Q. (1988). Road to Nunavut-Progress of the Eastern Arctic Inuit since the Second World War,Montréal, McGill-Queen’s University Press.

KETILSON L.H. and I. MACPHERSON (editors) (2001). Aboriginal Co-operatives in Canada – Case Studies,Ottawa, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development, viewed May 2012 atwww.publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/R2-161-2001E.pdf.

MACPHERSON, I. (2007). “The Origins of the Canadian Co-operative Movement, 1900-1914,” in I. MacPherson(ed.), One Path to Co-operative Studies, A Selection of Papers and Presentations, Victoria, B.C., NewRochdale Press, pp. 7-30, at www.uvic.ca/research/centres/cccbe/assets/docs/publications/RochdalePress -/OnePath_to_CooperativeStudies.pdf, viewed May 2012

MACPHERSON, I. (1979). Each For All: A History of the Co-operative Movement in English Canada, 1900-1945,Carleton Library No. 116, Toronto, Macmillan Company of Canada Ltd.

MACPHERSON, I. (1984). Building and Protecting the Co-operative Movement: A Brief History of theCo-operative Union of Canada 1909-1984, Ottawa, Co-operative Union of Canada.

MACPHERSON, I. (2001). “Introduction,” in L.H. Ketilson and I. MacPherson (editors), Aboriginal Co-operativesin Canada – Case Studies, Ottawa, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development,atwww.publications.gc.ca/collections/Collection/R2-161-2001E.pdf, viewed May 2012.

MITCHELL, M. (1993). “Social, Economic, and Political Transformation Among Canadian Inuit from 1950 to1988,” In the Shadow of the Sun: Perspective on Contemporary Native Art, Mercury Series Paper 124,Ottawa, Canadian Museum of Civilization, pp. 333-356.

MITCHELL, M. (1996). From Talking Chiefs to a Native Corporate Elite, Montréal, McGill-Queen’s Press.OKRANT, M.J. (1972). Eskimo Co-operatives: Northwest Territories and Quebec, Master’s Thesis, Southern

Connecticut State College.STAGER, J. (1985). Inuit Co-operatives and Change in the Canadian North, Canada House Lecture Series No.

16, Canada High Commission, Leeds, University of Leeds Printing Service.STAGER, J. (1982). An Evaluation Survey of the Federated Co-operatives in Nouveau Quebec and the Northwest

Territories after the Co-operative Development Program, Ottawa, Program Evaluation Branch,Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

TULUGAK, A. and P. MURDOCH (2007). A New Way of Sharing, Baie-d’Urfé, Fédération des Coopératives duNouveau-Québec.

VALLEE, F.G. (1968). “Notes on the Cooperative Movement and Community Organization in the CanadianArctic,” in V.F. Valentine and F.G. Vallee (editos), Eskimo of the Canadian Arctic, The Carleton LibraryNo 41, Toronto, McClelland and Stewart Ltd.

WILSON, G.N. (n.d.). The Nunavik Commission and the Path to Self-Government in Arctic Quebec, www.cpsa-acsp.ca/ papers-2005/Wilson.pdf , viewed September 2008.



Summary

Northern co-operatives became multi-purpose enterprises within a few years of their inception andcontributed significantly to the growth, fiscal health, and cultural health of the communities in whichthey were situated. As a business model based upon the principles of democratic control, communityresponsibility, cooperative value systems, and the will to control one’s economic and social destiny,co-operatives in the North fit well with Inuit cultural principles of collaboration and individualresponsibility for the group. From their inception, northern co-operatives became a vehicle for comingtogether to make decisions about community, which subsequently led to pan-Arctic Inuit colla -boration and the formation of self-government.

Resumen

Las cooperativas del norte se tornaron empresas multipropósito a los pocos años de su creación ehicieron un aporte significativo a la solidez fiscal y cultural de las comunidades en las que seencuentran. Como modelo comercial basado en los principios de control democrático, responsabilidadcomunitaria, sistema de valores cooperativos y la voluntad de controlar el destino económico y socialde la comunidad, las cooperativas del Norte encajan bien en los valores culturales inuits decooperación y responsabilidad individual para el grupo. Desde su creación, las cooperativas del nortese han convertido en un vehículo para unirse a fin de tomar decisiones sobre la comunidad, lo queposteriormente llevó a la colaboración inuit de la región ártica y a la formación de una administraciónautónoma.

Résumé

Quelques années seulement après leur création, les coopératives du Nord sont devenues desentreprises polyvalentes qui ont contribué de manière significative à la croissance et la santé fiscaleet culturelle des communautés dans lesquelles elles ont été implantées. En tant que modèle d'affairesfondé sur les principes du contrôle démocratique, de la responsabilité communautaire, d’un systèmede valeurs coopératives et de la volonté de contrôler le destin social et économique de lacommunauté, les coopératives du Nord correspondent bien aux principes culturels inuits decollaboration et de responsabilité individuelle pour le groupe. Depuis leur création, les coopérativesdu Nord sont devenues une plateforme de rassemblement pour prendre des décisions sur lacommunauté, ce qui a par la suite mené à une collaboration des Inuits de la région arctique et à laformation d’une administration autonome.



The Inuit Co-operative Movement in Northern Canada, 1959-1968

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Transcript of The Inuit Co-operative Movement in Northern Canada, 1959-1968