Canada is in the middle of a housing crisis. The private sector has failed to fix the steep cost of housing, and many now recognize it as a market failure. Accordingly, in last year's budget, the federal government committed to funding non-profit solutions like housing co-operatives. We are also dealing with a crisis in the food supply chain. According to Statistics Canada, prices have gone up by an astounding 20 per cent from 2020 to 2023, and 23 per cent of the population is food insecure.
During the Great Depression, those co-operatives who survived were funded by the federal government, and they, in turn, helped to organize new co-operatives. In the 1950s, Inuit co-ops greatly contributed to social development and food sovereignty in communities harmed by colonialism. However, the 1990s saw a steep reduction in support of co-ops as the government prioritized market solutions. We can take inspiration from other models that aren't co-ops.