{"id":249163,"date":"2026-02-04T13:51:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/?p=249163"},"modified":"2026-02-04T13:58:17","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T18:58:17","slug":"cmc-convenes-inaugural-council-of-economic-advisors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/cmc-convenes-inaugural-council-of-economic-advisors\/","title":{"rendered":"CMC Convenes Inaugural Council of Economic Advisors"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>On January 29, Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC) convened the first meeting of its newly established Council of Economic Advisors, bringing together an exceptional group of leading economists from across the country.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Council includes chief economists from major co-operative and mutual institutions, alongside respected academic economists. It was created to provide strategic guidance on CMC\u2019s economic research and policy work, including the <strong>2026 Economic Impact Study<\/strong> and the development of a new flagship report, <strong><em>Power the Economy<\/em><\/strong>, to be released later this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The inaugural meeting focused on gathering expert feedback on how to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>strengthen the economic narrative around co-operatives and mutuals; and<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>improve how economic and social impacts are measured and communicated to policymakers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Discussions were highly engaged and constructive. Advisors offered valuable insights on framing co-operatives as fiscally efficient, resilient, and community-rooted economic actors\u2014well positioned to address key policy priorities such as affordability, SME succession, regional development, and economic stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Council\u2019s input will directly inform CMC\u2019s research and advocacy throughout 2026. Members will reconvene later this spring to review draft findings from the Economic Impact Study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>CMC extends its sincere thanks to the Council members for their leadership, expertise, and commitment to strengthening the economic case for co-operatives and mutuals in Canada.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><u>Council of Economic Advisors<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Bryan Yu \u2013 Chief Economist, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.central1.com\/\">Central 1<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Charles St-Arnaud \u2013 Chief Economist, <a href=\"https:\/\/servus.ca\/\">Servus Credit Union<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dilek Sayedahmed \u2013 Senior Economist, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyu.edu\/\">NYU<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Jimmy Jean \u2013 VP, Chief Economist and Strategist, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.desjardins.com\/qc\/en.html\">Desjardins<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>John Kay \u2013 Board President, <a href=\"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/\">Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Judith Bosire \u2013 Chief Economist, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vancity.com\/\">Vancity<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Kaylie Thiessen \u2013 Chief Economist, <a href=\"https:\/\/canadianshieldinstitute.ca\/\">The Canadian SHIELD Institute<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Marc-Andr\u00e9 Pigeon \u2013 Assistant Professor, University of Saskatchewan; Director, <a href=\"https:\/\/usaskstudies.coop\/\">Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Margie Mendell \u2013 Distinguished Professor Emeritus Professor, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.concordia.ca\/\">Concordia University<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sean Gobbey \u2013 Associate Professor, University of Waterloo; Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/uwaterloo.ca\/complexity-innovation\/\">Waterloo Institute for Complexity and Innovation<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Sonja Novkovic \u2013 Professor Emerita, Saint Mary\u2019s University; Academic Director of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smu.ca\/iccm\/index.html\">International Centre for Co-operative Management at Saint Mary\u2019s<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yanick Desnoyers \u2013 Chief Economic Strategist, <a href=\"https:\/\/addendacapital.com\/en-ca\/\">Addenda Capital<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 29, Co-operatives and Mutuals Canada (CMC) convened the first meeting of its newly established Council of Economic Advisors, bringing together an exceptional group of leading economists from across the country. The Council includes chief economists from major co-operative and mutual institutions, alongside respected academic economists. It was created to provide strategic guidance on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":249296,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-249163","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-government-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249163","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=249163"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249163\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":249307,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/249163\/revisions\/249307"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/249296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=249163"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=249163"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canada.coop\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=249163"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}