Broad-based ownership structures include employee or user cooperatives, NFP social enterprises, employee share ownership structures, and other socially responsible ownership structures.
An essential part of the strategy to create a more resilient and equitable future economy
is to create more broad-based and community ownership structures.
As highlighted in a recent study, The Case for Employee Ownership, workers fare better financially and experience greater employment stability in employee-owned firms than they do in traditional firms.
Broad-based ownership structures root capital to place. During times of crisis, cooperative and broad-based ownership structures can be a tool to ensure decent work environments, access to affordable goods and services, and to share the risk burden.
These types of structures are also key to creating an economy that is designed to deliver economic gains to employees and to create more social solidarity in the workplace.
Commitment to this action area will result in job retention and new job development
across the London region.
It will also provide a stronger foundation for more resilient employment and increase the personal financial equity of more people across the region.
Connecting social and cooperative enterprises with opportunities in the anchor collaborative and community benefit RFPs will also lead to a stronger small- and medium-sized business sector in the London region—and that makes the region more resilient in the long run.
Buy Social Canada has been collecting stories about social enterprises in Canada. Learn more here.
Learn more about how to leave a lasting legacy through employee ownership from Project Equity.
Learn more about the power of cooperatives from the Ontario Cooperative Association.