I am pleased to report that we’ve got yet another successful Congress under our belt! Our team worked incredibly hard behind the scenes to provide you with a one-of-a-kind Congress filled with amazing panels, thought-provoking discussions, and from what I heard, some very delicious food! I am extremely proud of them for their dedication and for pulling off this amazing feat—CMC is lucky to have each and every one of them!
I would also like to congratulate the winners of the 2023 CMC Awards. Each year, CMC honours individuals and organizations working in the Canadian co-operative and mutual sector in recognition of their outstanding contributions. This year, we announced two new categories that speak to important priorities in our industry. I am extremely proud to congratulate Sustainable Solutions Group for receiving the first ever Environmental Initiative of the Year Award and to Canadian Worker Co-operative Federation for winning the very first JEDI (Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) Initiative of the Year Award! You can check out their projects, along with the other award recipients, on our website.
Lastly, I want to thank all of our members and fellow co-operatives and mutuals for taking the time to respond to our ongoing census. CMC is proud to manage a unique national database of Canadian co-operatives, credit unions, and mutuals which drives a publicly accessible interactive sectoral map. The database and its map have proven to be invaluable tools for promoting co-operative procurement practices and collaboration, supporting academic research, and ensuring that our sector is accurately represented in the development of federal, provincial, and municipal governmental policy. The ongoing census project is essential to ensuring that our database and Canadian Co-operative and Mutuals Map remain useful resources for our sector.
On that note, I leave you to explore the rest of the newsletter, and to launch your summer with the same excitement we have for ours!