Time to give back to Manitoba’s north

First published in the Winnipeg Free Press Dec. 6, 2016

By Lynne Fernandez

Those of us who were hoping that the Throne Speech would have details about a strategy for Manitoba’s North were disappointed. There seems to be a deliberate effort to not mention the Port of Churchill or the Hudson Bay Rail Line in any mention of the North. The absence is odd given the necessity of both for the regional economy and in the case of Churchill’s deep-water port, Arctic sovereignty.

Social Enterprise Video

Employees from BUILD and Manitoba Green Retrofit share their experiences working at social enterprises and the impacts this is has in their lives and communities. This documentary short includes highlights of the CCPA Manitoba study “Creating Pride Through Decent Work”.   

Poverty Policy Choices and Winnipeg’s Inner City

By Jim Silver

Provincial government policy can be designed to punish those in poverty, or to reduce poverty. Both approaches have been tried in Manitoba, the first in the 1990s and the other more recently. We can compare these approaches by examining Winnipeg’s inner city.

Over the past 15 years, and especially the past five years, Winnipeg’s inner city has benefitted from a community-led form of development supported by substantial public investment. The Winnipeg Foundation, United Way of Winnipeg and other such public bodies, and especially the provincial government, have led the way in investing public dollars in initiatives and strategies driven in large part by inner city community-based organizations (CBOs). Neighbourhood renewal corporations, women’s resource centres, youth-serving agencies, alternative educational institutions, social enterprises and a wide variety of Aboriginal organizations have developed sophisticated anti-poverty strategies in which public dollars have been invested.

Investing in Social Enterprise to reduce poverty and green house gases

By Lynne Fernandez
A new Errol Black Chair paper explains how a combination of governmental policies and initiatives in Manitoba allows social enterprises to reduce Manitoba’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while training and employing Inner City workers. The provincial government and Manitoba Hydro are supporting social enterprises so they can work in two emerging ‘green’ sectors: building retrofits and alternative energy installations.

Are we as cooperative as we think we are?

This post, by Brendan Reimer was originally posted by the Canadian Community Economic Development Network.

This summer, I had the great privilege to be invited by Vancity Credit Union to join their two-week study tour of the Italian co-op community as a representative of Assiniboine Credit Union, where I have been elected by the members to the Board of Directors.

With more than 111,000 co-ops serving their members, their impact in communities and the whole country is enormous. At the epicenter of the movement, the region of Emilia-Romagna has 8,000 co-ops, which represent 40% of the region’s GDP. Research evidence reveals that this co-operatization of the economy creates both a stronger economy, but also a fairer one – something that leads to greater social cohesion and societal stability. 

Book Launch: Inner City Renovation

Please join us in celebrating the launch of Inner City Renovation: How a Social Enterprise Changes Lives and Communities by Marty Donkervoort
Marty Donkervoort will give a short talk about his book on Thursday, September 19, 2013, 7:00pm