Derek Cook: He
Derek Cook: being painted here of
Derek Cook: really innovative ways, where we can make a significant impact on poverty and at the systemic root causes of poverty by creating an economy that works better for everyone, including business.
Derek Cook: So
Derek Cook: I think, for those of us who have a strong interest in poverty, reduction, and ending poverty. This really presents some important new
Derek Cook: creative opportunities for us. So thinking about it from that perspective, the last question I have for our steamed panelists is.
Derek Cook: what would you need in order to scale your impact?
Derek Cook: So, for example, what
Derek Cook: the power of collaboration and and mutually beneficial partnerships that you you spoke about Rachel, or what would really enable the city of Toronto to scale up its impact so on, so
Derek Cook: want to reflect a little bit about what
Derek Cook: might empower and or power this change a little bit more so i'll turn it to once again to you. Tierra.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: thanks. It's a great place to start. You know what's so wonderful about this conversation? Is
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: the solutions exist already? Right? It's about the it's about. The will to implement them. Okay. But let's let me come back to. I gotta get really excited when I meet people who share my values and ideals.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: So what do we need to have more impact? Well, First of all, we're missing some key legislation in Canada, and the Federal Government is in the process of creating legislation now. But it's not very good. So for employee ownership for small companies. Co-ops often work really well, as you get into like mid size companies that have a 150 up to a 1,000 employees. It's often a lot more difficult to implement. And so
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: employee ownership trusts or employee.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: Aesop's employee share Ownership Plans are 2 models that have been really successful in the Uk and the Us. And they both focus on the idea of a trust, so that the governance goes through a trust, leaving the company to operate in a way that's sort of a traditional corporate governance model.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: and we don't have that in Canada, and we don't have any set incentives or tax breaks, you know, to offset the difficulty that owners would have in shifting to a model like that, because there are some barriers up against it. So the first thing that we would need to
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: fix is that we need better legislation. So anyone who's passionate about this issue out there, no matter where you are what city you're in, what your background is. If this is something you believe in, that you think the employees should have ownership of their companies as a way of supporting employees and the communities that they work in. I'm gonna put my email in there. Please reach out to me because we're looking for voices of people who can speak to the impact, the positive impact they feel like you have in their community to help get better legislation. So that's
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: that's really the first thing, and the second thing is awareness. People don't realize even how much you can do with a co-OP you know with a people think of a co-OP is like a very difficult governance model. It, in fact, is not. It can be a very seamless governance. Model. There are many, many opportunities. If we understand that
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: that employees can become the owners of the companies.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: we need to have those conversations. We need to have them in rural environments and urban environments among small companies among larger companies to help people understand that
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: you don't just have to sell to the highest bidder, or to the biggest company or to a private Equity company that you can actually sell in such a way. That's gonna create positive social outcomes.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: and the owner can still come away with the money that they've put into in the effort they've put into their company. So a lot of this comes down to the conversations and the education. Those are really really important to creating a lift for this kind of activity.
Derek Cook: How about from your perspective, Rachel? What would coast capital need to really scale its impact.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): So i'm gonna double down a little bit on an earlier point, and just call out that you know a social purpose business model does not exist without a really strong ecosystem, and that ecosystem is absolutely critical, because
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): true systemic change does not happen in isolation. You can't tackle a big problem just as business. We need everyone at the table, whether that's business government, the charitable sector individuals to make strides to address some of these biggest issues of our time.
And so for us, you know, we're really focused on deepening relationships with partners.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): particularly those who share a vision of you know the change that we want to see. But we also need to think about partnership a little bit differently. We need to think about how we can work collaboratively to move the needle and build more reciprocal reciprocal relationships that all help us achieve our intended impact, and being able to come to the table and say, this is, you know the North Star vision that I'm trying to achieve?
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): What is yours? Where can we align? Where can we work together to support one another, and really start to evolve and shift some of these large concerns that we're grappling with.
You know, for us, as well as I mentioned earlier, You know, we really see value in this model to build more inclusive, equitable, and future focused employment opportunities, and so really helping other organizations to become purpose, led and to think about social purpose as that North Star vision, and to make
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): decisions informed by their social purpose is very important for us. The success of the purpose economy is very important to us. And so the last thing I would say is, you know, I think, that there is a real opportunity for everyone in this space
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): to think about how you know we vote with our dollars. To use that expression, you know, to think about where we can do business with values, aligned organizations
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): because all of those choices that we may create ripple effects. You know, when we think about working with organizations that are committed to inclusive practices.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): You know, that supports that organization's employees who then support their local communities. There is this incredible ripple effect that can happen when we're all working collaboratively and and aiming for a a similar output. And so, you know, for us, partnership is key. The ecosystem is key, but there's also a real desire to grow that purpose ecosystem, and to help other organizations see the value in taking this step because it is not an insignificant step. It
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): is, you know, an investment of time, of resources. It's a financial investment to become a social purpose company, and to take those steps to defining your social purpose. But we really see incredible value throughout that entire ecosystem. But all of the stakeholders at the business impacts as well.
Derek Cook: It's interesting to hear you talk about
Derek Cook: thinking about collaboration and partnership differently, because we're talked to think about competition. and
Derek Cook: we don't, You know we we don't collaborate with our competitors, but I maybe goes back to where we started this conversation about trust.
Derek Cook: and if we have trust actually, we can go. as you mentioned, to like farther together. If you want to go fast. Go along. But if you want to go far.
Derek Cook: you go together, and I think that's what we're talking about is going far by going by going together. So So thinking about once again the ecosystem, I'm going to turn it over.
Derek Cook: Do you so like what some do you think is going to be required in order to scale the impact of these kinds of initiatives.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: Yeah. So
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: we need time. We need time, and we need resources to be able to move community benefits in public contracts from an idea into a proven concept of the time.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: only time to really learn and to build implementation tools and processes. We need time to replicate. We need time to replicate over and over until it becomes standard operating practice across internal internally At the city of Toronto. We need time to engage on
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: change management and change navigation where we could bring all, you know, different players within our ecosystem on board, and getting everyone used to the various tools, the learnings as well as you know, we need time to make mistakes along the way and to continuously iterate our work. And I think a second
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: area that we're currently working on in the community benefits unit is, which is also Council directed, is looking outside of You know what our current school is working with city division
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: into looking at the private sector. So this key policy development initiative is around. Looking at how you can work with our compel private develop developers to actually
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: include community benefits, plans and commit to and deliver on community benefits like workforce development. So that is a question that we're currently grappling with and working with together. And that that question really is, Well, what levers do we have to do so?
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: And if there anyone here that, you know, has any insights. I would love to connect with you as well, and i'll drop my email address in the the chat box, too.
Derek Cook: Thank you. This has been a really insightful conversation thus far.
Derek Cook: and you've
Derek Cook: pulls the question to the audience, and we have the opportunity now for a few minutes to take questions from the audience. or perhaps an answer to yours.
Derek Cook: So we've got about 10 min before we go into into our breakout rooms. If
Derek Cook: anybody has any questions they would like to pose to any of the panelists or panelists. If you have questions, you would like to pose to each other. or comments to make. This would be the time to do it.
Derek Cook: And if you are I i'm gonna see with. Make sure that I can see everybody. I not sure I will see you.
Derek Cook: So please, if you're in the audience, feel free just to speak, to speak up or post it. Post a question in the chat.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: If no one has a question forthcoming, I have a question for participants, which is from where you're standing. What are the
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: major problems that you feel you need to tackle? And are any of the solutions that you heard here things that address that, or is it something different?
Derek Cook: Maybe while people are? Thank you. Questions like.
Derek Cook: Excuse me, I have a question for
Derek Cook: the panel, which is.
Derek Cook: it's been implied. But we are a
Derek Cook: group. This gathered around the idea of poverty reduction.
Derek Cook: What do you see as the impact that these kinds of things can have actually have on poverty
Derek Cook: in a community? And what sort of what would be the pathway that you see that having that impact
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: is that one open to everyone, Derek.
Derek Cook: open to everyone? Yes.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: I'd love to jump in. This one can have an enormous impact on poverty if done correctly. And
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: actually, I shouldn't say correctly, I should say, depending on how you structure it. So let's talk about employee Ownership Trust. There are 2 ways that those can be structured. One is through a profit sharing model, so that means that every year the earnings of the corporation pay out to individuals the the the employees.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: and the other is an equity sharing model, which means that there may not be a pay out in a given year. But the value, the cash, and the profitability of the corporation are going to roll up, and the value of the company, and when someone leaves at the end through retirement, or going on to their next job to get a cash, pay out for the value of those shares
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: The first one may help tackle income, inequality, but the second one tackles both income, inequality and wealth inequality. So people who are in low income jobs
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: low income turns into low wealth because you don't have additional savings left at the end of the month to put away, and with our affordability issues, it's simply getting worse. And what that means is that you, you don't have money to invest, and
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: in a mature company mature economy like Canada. Those who have money to invest are going to see a greater return year over year than those for using their labor as a way of earning income. So when you're excluded from investing. You're going to be losing ground against those who can invest year over year that's widening the inequality. So this model.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: this is why we call ourselves rewrite capital. We want to rewrite who's holding capital. We want capital in the hands of those who are low income in front line, because when you do that, then all of a sudden they are able to capture the value of
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: of the growth of wealth which which the growth of income can't compete with in a mature economy, so it can have a huge impact on the bottom line. And that's why we'd like to see it more widely distributed in Canada.
Derek Cook: Thank you.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): Yeah. And I can just add, on on the social purpose side, You know, I think, what I've seen across organizations that are becoming social purposes, this real commitment to driving decent, equitable, living wage employment, and to really, you know, if you're going to be a social purpose organization, if you're going to take that step and really stand behind a value.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): You need to embrace that within your own organization as well and for social purpose to work. It has to be authentic, and your employees have to feel it first. And so this there's this real commitment
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): to ensuring that your employees are having a really positive experience at your organization, and so to grow the purpose, economy and help more people take that. That leap
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): means that more folks are getting decent, equitable living wage employment, and to Tier's earlier point are then able to not only, you know, start to see the financial rewards of that, but are able to start to, you know, grow their wealth, and that has
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): implications both within their communities, as we think about the ripple effects of them being able to, you know, spend dollars with local businesses and help support others, but it also has a generational impact. When we're able to start accumulating wealth and and helping people grow their wealth that has implications for generations to come. And so
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): there is this real opportunity to leverage. you know, decent and equitable work to result in ripple effects that will be seen not only for that individual, but for their families, for future generations and their communities.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: Yeah, Going both with Sierra and Rachel mentioned, I think, a big piece of the ripple effect, as well as tapping into
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: all of the you know ongoing growth
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: happening across our country, and ensuring that, for example, a community benefits is able to, you know, be a mechanism to help fill a gap around labor shortage, for example, and then directly benefiting indigenous and black and equity deserving communities. And, like you, said Rachel, you know, creating that generational well, such an access as well to these types of opportunities over a long term, and a big part of that also includes, you know, coordination, you know.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: coordinated, hiring pathway and training for these types of positions that open up as well, and on the social procurement front, making it as accessible as possible for those owners and businesses to also take part in the procurement, whether it be internally the city Toronto, or externally as well.
Derek Cook: Well, i'm gonna go to the chat, because I see there's a few questions that have been posed here. I think the first one it's for you, Tierra. which is, are there tools, or a template that businesses can use to transition to an employee share model.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: That's a great question. So
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: let's break employee share model into 2 different kinds. One is cooperatives, and one is what I would call an employee ownership trust model.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: There are lots of great tools in Canada around co-ops. I'm not an expert in the co-OP space, but you can look up. There is a co-OP organization of Canada. There are usually also provincial ones, and they have often facilitators of training materials, and all kinds of things. So you can form a worker cooperative that way, and that's a great solution for small companies or companies that are looking to have a governance model
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: attached to it as Well, so co-ops are not just employee ownership. They also have a governance model related to it on the other side. Employee ownership trusts which are designed for larger companies are complex and they are complex legal structures, and that is maybe the one disadvantage is that you have to be really committed, because there's a bit of work to get to it. It's a non traditional business model. It's you're going to need to involve an accountant to lawyer.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: an advisor and a trustee, and by an advisor I mean somebody who specialized in employee trust structures. So someone like our company, or there are a couple of others that do it in Canada, and you'll really want to go through the process carefully to make sure everything is in place, and you've crossed all your keys and dotted all your eyes, but that's what companies like myself and others are there for. So any company that wants to make that transition, we can happily talk to them about what's required to go through it.
Derek Cook: Thank you.
Derek Cook: A question here for Silic.
Derek Cook: Somebody is asked, Are there any aspects of what you do that you feel are particularly scalable for small municipalities. I think this is a great question, not just for municipalities, but
Derek Cook: also for businesses, because a lot of times we see, you know. Oh, well, you know Nike did that great thing, but i'm not Nike or Toronto's done this great thing. But i'm just a small.
Derek Cook: a small municipality. So how would you see this applying to smaller scale municipalities?
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: Yeah. So I guess an example of an aspect of what we do within the community benefits unit is. We are actively engaged in the development of back end implementation, infrastructure of pilot testing which includes various labor forecasting tools.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: templates to support data tracking, but working with, for example, unions or developers as well. So I think that is one area we are working on a community benefits toolkit that will kind of contain all that information. So I think that is an area that we could probably connect on. If you're open to Anna and anyone else in the group as well, where we have various tools and processes and templates to support community benefits, initiatives, whether it be in the small municipalities, or any
anywhere really in in Canada.
Derek Cook: So i'm going to the question then to
Derek Cook: our business panelists about how you see this, maybe particularly to your Rachel.
Derek Cook: You talked about being a B core, and I know that there is a bit of work. It goes into becoming a be corps and some smaller medium. Andes enterprises are saying, Well, we'd love to do it, but it seems like a lot of work. How do you think that this some of these practices translate to to to smaller operations.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): Yeah, I think it's an interesting question, because to your point, I mean from where I said, I can also compare myself to a Nike, and think there are things that are accessible to a Nike that are not accessible to me.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): And so I think thinking about scale is really important, and what you have the capacity to commit to, and where, I think social purpose is an interesting model is, you know you can define a north star and then
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): build a plan to get there. And you know your North Star is always going to be aspirational. and so you can really start to think about. What do we have the capacity, the available funding to do in the shorter term and the longer term, and, you know, recognize that, being transparent and accountable to your North Star
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): is what people are really looking for. You can then build out a very long term roadmap down You're gonna get there based on what your organization has the capacity to do in the shorter term.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): you know, on the B Corp side. Certainly. Yes, there is a lot of time that goes into completing that assessment and to becoming the corpse certified. But what's great about what B Lab has set up is, you know, any organization can go and complete that assessment
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): and the assessment, if you you take it kind of chunk by Chunk
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): gives you this really great insight into your organization, and so whether you choose to then pursue be corp, certification or not. Those questions that get asked in that the impact assessment in the 5 categories being employees, customers, environment, community and governance can help you evaluate your organization
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): and start to think about. Okay? Well, if we wanted to to be Corp certification, what are some of the short term small wins that we can take based on this assessment. And you know, understanding. If you're going to get to 80, so you do need to get to 80 to become the Corp certified. But you can do that assessment on B Labs website.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): and to determine where you sit and where you could potentially make some changes to move in in a different direction.
Derek Cook: I see a question on the chat. Where would organizations get the assessment tools for that certification. Could you post the B Lab link in in the chat?
Derek Cook: And a related question is, Can nonprofits also be employee owned?
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: Yeah, I mean through the co-OP model. Yes, because Co-OP, a co-OP model is a business model structure with a governance structure attached so you can be nonprofit or for profit.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: or B Corp, or however, you like, it's really a a structure and governance model. So yes, they definitely can be in terms of it, being like an employee ownership trust model.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: I don't think so. And the reason why is because the I mean you
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: it. It's because of the share ownership component, and that the whole, there's like costs associated with it and complexity; and if it's not leading to reduction in poverty and wealth and equality through profitability, it's probably too complex. So I would definitely look at a work, a co-OP model for a not for profit.
Derek Cook: a related question. Then the corporations can nonprofits and local governments become certified as a vicar.
Rachel Dick, Coast Capital (She/Her): That is a great question, and I don't know that I've come across any nonprofits who have become B corp certified in my travels. You know. The majority of folks that I've engaged with in the B Corp community have been on on the business side, but it's certainly something I can look into and share when we come back from the chat from the the breakouts.
Derek Cook: Okay.
Derek Cook: And then a question for you, Silic.
Derek Cook: Has there ever been any consideration
Derek Cook: by the city through procurement of giving preference to
Derek Cook: social enterprises, social purpose, business, B corporations, and so on.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: I is it okay? If I take that back and circle back. I think so, but I just want to make sure that I am correct.
Souleik Kheyre - City of Toronto: This is part of how we start to grow the eco, the support of ecosystem.
Derek Cook: this
Derek Cook: through these these strategies that nurture the kind of business that we want to see.
Derek Cook: Are there any other questions from the audience, and either raise your hand or to speak up or
Derek Cook: throw something in the chat.
Derek Cook: Well, hey.
Derek Cook: same done a comment in the chat. It feels like. It might also be important to lobby governments at all levels. They have social procurement policies that that include the nonprofits they contract out to.
Derek Cook: and a lot of discussion as well about
Derek Cook: funders, not just government, but
Derek Cook: our foundations, and so on. I mean similar requirements.
Derek Cook: If there are no more questions, why Don't? We turned over to you, Natasha. If you could break us out
Derek Cook: into breakout rooms
Natasha Pei: just before we do that, I see that the Nelson watch party has their hand up.
Derek Cook: Oh, I think I see Jill in front of the camera. Did you want to ask a question?
Nelson Watch PArty: Okay, yes, thank you so much, Natasha. I just this is coming from my personal
Nelson Watch PArty: experience of living in a resort, and one of the things that we're quite concerned about is kind of that corporate take over. So i'm thinking about the
Nelson Watch PArty: opportunity for small businesses to keep that.
Nelson Watch PArty: So i'm just thinking about just like questions. I guess it's more on the
Nelson Watch PArty: promoting that as a strategy, and if you have seen it as an effective strategy, and try to keep that well in the accounts
Nelson Watch PArty: of the
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: great really great question. And yes, you really put your finger on it. So let me tell you a brief story, and then tell you about an an anti- story 3 stories. I grew up between the cities of Vernon and Armstrong, British Columbia, Armstrong being very small, just. It was like 2,000 people when I was growing up, and it's key
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: employer with Armstrong cheese, which most of you have probably tasted at some point in your life.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: Armstrong cheese had been sold to
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: to Dairy Land and dairyland. The big corporation had promised to keep it there like that was part of the contract, but only 2 years after Dairy land had bought it. Dairy land was acquired in a strategic acquisition by Sapphuto foods, who moved the plant away, and they lost all of the jobs that were in Armstrong. So you had an immediate hollowing out, and it was a real blow economically to the community, and people were faced with 2 choices. Stay in Armstrong and lose your job
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: mit ctl and or leave, and that's really common in smaller communities. So you know, I have a lot of my friends family who are deeply affected by that 150.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: Let me tell you about the opposite. So cobbling together the laws that we have to create something that looks like an employee ownership trust. Back in the sixties a company named Fris.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: which is a a hard cover book publishing company in Manitoba. Altona Manitoba came up with an employee ownership type strategy, and they've stayed in Altona. They are the primary employer in Altona, tiny town in Manitoba. They are a world leader. They produce pretty much all of the yearbooks at every university, along with all kinds of other publishing, and they have grown and continue to grow year over year, attracting more people to Manitoba, and keeping the income in the wealth in that small town, so it can.
Tiara Letourneau, Rewrite Capital: It can make it can literally make or break small communities all across this country, and that's why we we want to get it right.
Dania El-Ayoubi: I'm not sure if I was in Group number one. I think I was in group Number one.
Dania El-Ayoubi: Okay, Awesome. Thanks. Yeah. So I was actually able or sorry. I wasn't able to attend the full workshop, so it wasn't able to get a lot of ideas from
Dania El-Ayoubi: the beginning to the middle of the workshop. But one thing that we talked about that I'm planning to action in the future is kind of taking a bit of a the theme and the ideas from this workshop, and implementing it to
Dania El-Ayoubi: action. More items to get Ontario living wage employers in golf and Wellington County.
Dania El-Ayoubi: More employers signed on to the Ontario living wage network, and to get some more employers certified so and hopefully at the champion level, which is the highest level. So yeah, i'm excited to watch the recording of this and and look back, so I can have a
Dania El-Ayoubi: a better full, some understanding on some suggestions, or or some key takeaways on on how to do that
Derek Cook: great living wage is one of the
Derek Cook: maybe easiest starting points for enter into this journey. Yes.
Dania El-Ayoubi: yeah, and a great movement.
Dania El-Ayoubi: So yeah, thank you.
Derek Cook: Thanks. Group Number 2
Natasha Pei: group 2 was Susan Dominica, Claire Benjamin, and I think, Christine Bushy.
cbushey: that's right. We were so busy chatting. Sorry this is Christine. We were so busy chatting. We didn't appoint a a speaker.
cbushey: so I I If if the group's okay with it, i'll just i'll just summarize. I I did take some notes as we were talking in terms of key takeaways. We we also agreed, as was stated by Derek, that the living wage is a really great place to start
cbushey: that you know employers, part sector employers may not be ready to take the leap to employee owned if if they're not already thinking in that direction, but becoming living wage employers could potentially demonstrate to them some of the benefits of
having employers who are earning a decent income in terms of retention and recruitment and engagement, and all of that stuff.
cbushey: So that was one thing we talked about. The other thing that we talked about that was of interest was the community benefits plan. The idea of incorporating community benefits into contracts that was of interest to us. And then we did spend a little bit of time just talking about just needs in general, and what all of our groups are doing in in general. We we do a lot to mitigate, as someone said early to mitigate the impacts of poverty.
cbushey: and and we do recognize the need to shift the the the community perception the public perception towards systemic change, and particularly look at engaging with our municipal decision makers and and other key decision makers and influencers in in the in the both the private and the public sector
cbushey: Anything else, script 2 members would add.
Dominica McPherson (she/her): That sounded great.
Derek Cook: Great. Thank you. Yeah. I I think there's
Derek Cook: some really exciting opportunities for how we can engage business differently
Derek Cook: in our local poverty reduction strategies. We we come at it from this lens.
Derek Cook: Oh, thank you. Group number 3,
Derek Cook: so I guess that would be Whoever is not the Nelson watch party we'll leave. We will give Nelson the last word number 3. That was not the hasn't reported, and is not the one that the Nelson group.
Rosalie she/her Social Planning Cowichan: It's probably my group. Then
Rosalie she/her Social Planning Cowichan: we didn't assign anyone, but i'm happy to just share that we thought there was lots of great ideas Throughout this presentation.
Rosalie she/her Social Planning Cowichan: We talked also about living wage. Most of us in the room were have calculated as well, or are going to be for this year.
Rosalie she/her Social Planning Cowichan: and then we also talked about co-ops for nonprofits. That was something I brought up with that was of interest. And
Rosalie she/her Social Planning Cowichan: and how it's important for the legislation to come through before we talk more about profit sharing with organizations and businesses.
Derek Cook: Good. Thank you.
Derek Cook: And last word goes to Nelson.
Anna Purcell: Hi, everyone.
Anna Purcell: Oh, it's it's just okay.
Nelson Watch PArty: There we go.
Nelson Watch PArty: Do I just scare the out.
Nelson Watch PArty: We had a really lively conversation here in Nelson. The participants in this meeting come from several communities from our local mount
Nelson Watch PArty: region, and 2 actionable items we identified on the back. We're at one. We got really excited about this idea of
Nelson Watch PArty: so employee ownership, especially in our communities that are like resort communities that I have to get a lot of foreign wealth and buy, and, like for many people outside the community, swooping in and buying up housing, stock and businesses, and, you know, becoming really dominant presence.
Nelson Watch PArty: our Chamber of Commerce and our City Council. Even so i'm finding way to keep agency and welcoming community through encouraging our mobile businesses to sell to their employees. That's something you got really excited about it that we can imagine very tangible benefits from that, and then also
Nelson Watch PArty: acknowledging that Vc. Was, I believe, the last promise to the poverty, reduction, strategy, and and healing like. If they were really serious about that, that they would look
Nelson Watch PArty: as if you include as part of their social procurement policy, making sure that their contractors, including the nonprofit that any of us in this room report are not encouraged to
Nelson Watch PArty: create contracts that are to the detriment of their employees, including, you know in this case of the length of like requiring that subcontractors need to have living wage
Nelson Watch PArty: like the policies put in place, that their case loads are, you know, overwhelming. So just not offloading the cost of
Nelson Watch PArty: effectively a human running the programs that the province wants to have one offloading that to the nonprofit sector and the workers there. So we saw an opportunity for lobbying to that.
Nelson Watch PArty: There's a
how we're going to answer that service.
Nelson Watch PArty: Don't forget about anything.
Nelson Watch PArty: Okay?
Nelson Watch PArty: Oh, yeah, that's speculation. And then also, there is, I guess there's been some recent changes. The big number has its own community charter, and the rest of us operate under
Nelson Watch PArty: a different community charter, and to really take advantage of a fairly recent change that allows smaller municipalities to implement speculation to, so that on, you know, on properties that we don't again.
Nelson Watch PArty: So larger money interests
Nelson Watch PArty: to the judgment.
Yeah, strategies and people
Nelson Watch PArty: got it. I think that's it.
Derek Cook: Ray. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone. Great great conversations
Derek Cook: really excited to hear about how you can see this. Apply into your work, and I think it the more we can ground these kinds of practices in
Derek Cook: actual local strategies, the more impact we'll have. So i'm encouraged. If people are interested in this type of stuff, i'll take the liberty of mentioning the the Canadian Poverty Institute. We have a roundtable.
Derek Cook: We call it the New Economy roundtable, and if anybody is interested, i'll, i'll put my a link to our website and my email.
Derek Cook: And here, if you're interested in joining, we meet every few months, 3 or 4 times a year.
Derek Cook: it's a network of
Derek Cook: private employers, a few local governments and nonprofit organizations that
Derek Cook: let's see, how can we embed inclusive business practices in in our community? So please feel free to join if you'd like to get in touch with me.
Derek Cook: so that wanna thank you all for your time and enthusiasm and energy this afternoon. It's been a very informative and inspiring conversation. a special Thank you to our panelists tiara, Rachel and Sulick for sharing their time.
Nelson Watch PArty: their experience and insights with us.
Derek Cook: and also a huge Thank you to the Tamarack Institute for organizing such an engaging session. So I will now turn it over to Natasha to wrap up
Natasha Pei: all right. Thank you. Thank you, Derek, as well as i'll echo your thank you to Rachel and Tiara. That was just really informative, and I think inspiring as well as we're looking for hope.
Natasha Pei: and to build some resilience into our our communities. I really appreciated this session.