In 2002, BCICS received a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant for the sum of $219,000 to study the impact of the New Economy on co-operatives in British Columbia. We are now in the final stage of the project having just completed our fieldwork on Malcolm Island and in Nelson.

The task of the project was to identify the issues that contribute to the success and/or failure of fledgling co-operatives within the context of what is sometimes called the New Economy. In a broad sense, the New Economy includes the impact of globalization and free trade, the changing role of the State (i.e. toward increased privatization of services), and the enhanced role of technology in the work place.

In the course of the project, in-depth information has been gathered from seven co-operatives formed in the last 10 years and two co-op federations.

In November 2005 we spent four days on Malcolm Island, just north of Vancouver Island. Malcolm Island is an intriguing, rural community with a unique history of Finnish settlers who founded a commune in the early 1900s.

Two-and-a-half years had passed since our last visit to the Island, so we found lots of new developments. In every interview residents could easily site examples of how the population on the Island was changing. The most telling example, and the one that came up unbidden in almost every interview, was that 10 years ago there were 140 children in their local school and today, enrolment is less than 40.

In 2003, we began interviewing members of three different co-ops. The most surprising change for us was that two of the co-ops were moving from a co-op model to a corporation. Members of the community forestry group had travelled around the province visiting sites of similar projects and felt the corporate model suited their needs and circumstances better than a co-op model.

Members of the Malcolm Island Shellfish Co-op had also come to this decision. Their members had worked hard over the last five years and confronted many challenges. Recent events presented them with the decision to explore becoming a corporation and this is the path they chose. Wild Island Food co-op is still carrying on and has so far been able to navigate many challenges while maintaining an optimistic vision of their future.

Life on the Island may be changing and is reflected within the local co-ops, yet people expressed a strong and inspiring sense of community and resilience. In interviews the sentiment was expressed that people "have been through this before" and the community will keep going. The dedication to starting and supporting co-ops was a commitment to their community; to building the local economy, to helping create a local source of employment, to providing services and opportunities for younger members of the community and a statement of hope in the future.

In January 2006, the research team went to Nelson for four days of interviewing members of seven different co-ops. Nelson is another rural community whose local economy and services were deeply affected by government cutbacks. References were made to August 2003's "Black Thursday" when a large number of local government employees lost their jobs. Health services were also severely impacted.

Community First Health Co-op (CFHP) grew out of the desire of local residents to preserve and enhance their local health services. After several years of careful and thorough planning, the Health Co-op announced the purchase of a local facility, which will be leased to a variety of health practitioners.

Members of Harrop-Procter Community Forestry Co-op have worked diligently towards achieving their vision of a sustainable, viable community-managed forest. Although they have faced many challenges their forestry lease has been renewed for another five years. While they were hoping for a longer lease this endorsement allows them to take the next steps towards achieving their goals.

Once again we were impressed by the power of commitment, and also saw the need for it. Two of the newly formed co-ops we were following folded in the last two years. Kootenay Woodvine, a resource economy co-op was unable to overcome market barriers as well as the challenge of being geographically dispersed. Work Opportunities Resource Co-op pioneered, in their own way, a form of social co-op but were unable to overcome the internal and external obstacles they faced.

This is a very brief synopsis of our work. We are now engaged in a deeper analysis of all the material we have collected over the past four years.

Joy Emmanuel