Responding to Business Succession Issues and Crises by Converting to Cooperatives: Canadian Realities and Possibilities

ABSTRACT

Most of Canada’s 1.2 million small-and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) have been affected by the pandemic, com-pounding serious issues facing Canada’s economy, including the potential for large-scale business closures due to the growing number of retirement-aged owners without a formal succession plan. One social economy option in Canada to save businesses and the jobs they provide is to sell them to employees or community members and convert them to co-operatives. The Conversion to Co-operatives Project set out to better understand business conversion to cooperatives (BCCs) in Canada and help the country’s co-op movement build BCC capacity. This article outlines the project’s key findings to date. © 2021, University of Alberta Library. All rights reserved.