Workshops in N.W.T. explore co-ops as alternative for northern business

CBC

09-03-2025

A Yellowknife-based learning and research centre recently hosted some workshops looking at co-operatives as an alternative model for northern business.
Glen Coulthard, a faculty member at the University of British Columbia, helped found the Dechinta Centre for Research and Learning in 2010. It's an Indigenous land-based initiative which delivers accredited post-secondary education and research opportunities in the North.
Coulthard says co-ops used to be more common in the North.
"Co-operatives were thought of as an integral part of … [Northwest Territories'] … history," he said.
A co-op is a business owned by its members, with each member having decision-making power. Co-ops aim to give back to the community where they operate and because decisions are made by worker-members as well as a board.
The recent courses and workshops at Dechinta were conducted with Surrey, B.C.-based Solid State Community Industries, which specializes in worker co-operatives but also the "solidarity economy." The solidarity economy prioritizes environmental and social profits just as much, if not more than, economic profits.
Glen Coulthard says he and Matt Hern, who helped co-found Solid State, had been thinking about the history of co-operatives in the North and talking about collaborating together for a long time. Coulthard says the invitation to work with Dechinta was to spark interest and answer questions about how to build alternative economies, and share the nitty-gritty details of how different models exist. Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, another faculty member at Dechinta, was also part of organizing Solid State's visit.
Dabney Meachum, climate change and disaster coordinator at Dechinta, says part of the excitement of working with Solid State was because it's already helped build successful co-ops in B.C. and so much of its work intersects with Dechinta.
"Building networks of solidarity can help in tough times," Meachum said.
Solid State's 2024 annual report says it has 28 co-ops with over 200 members. These co-ops range across a variety of fields: health care, early childhood education, arts and culture, urban planning, climate change, cleaning, media, peer support, and more.
WeiChun Kua, who was among the Solid State staff who came to the N.W.T., said many people right now are feeling a lot of insecurity and struggling to afford daily life.
Co-ops can offer a different way of doing things, Kua said.
"This work is really important ... as we really build and practice a different way of working together, a different economy that actually centres people and that actually centres workers."
Kua said the Dechinta students and workshop attendees were incredible, they asked good questions, and there were good discussions about what co-operative projects in different communities might look like.
Katrina Mugume, who's been with Solid State for about a year and a half, says the experience of working with Dechinta and being in the North was incredible. She said the group learned a lot, about Dene and northern history and culture, and got to experience things like ice roads, ice fishing, trying caribou meat for the first time, and having meaningful conversations with elders.
Mugume said she's looking forward to what happens next.
"The work … [Dechinta Centre and local groups] are doing is amazingly good. It's local, it's empowering to the community … hopefully in the future they can have their own [co-operative] incubator."
Mario Cimet, a co-operative developer with Solid State, says that while the context in the N.W.T. is very different from Surrey, he could see how the respective organizations' content overlaps.
An important part of Solid State's recipe for success is making sure food is always available at gatherings, and the workshops in Yellowknife were no different.
Sharing food together, Cimet says, is part of building relationships.
Aileen Ling, executive director of Makerspace YK, attended both the workshops. She said it was amazing to see the two organizations work together, and to learn about how Dechinta's Indigenous-led practice might align with the world of co-operatives.