Over the past three years, the pandemic, runaway inflation and growing inequality, coupled with the climate crisis, have shown us our great vulnerability. This has been reflected in our supply chains, but also in our ability to meet our needs and those of our hard-hit communities.
To these great challenges, we respond that the social economy is a solution for a more inclusive, sustainable and united society. Driven by innovative companies, the social economy has responded to the challenges of recent years by demonstrating its great resilience and agility, and it continues to do so.
Why choose and favor the social economy? This different way of doing the economy puts people at the heart of its decisions, favors the common good and the needs of communities. The social economy is more than a local business. Of course, it is deployed locally, while 76% of collective enterprises serve a regional market. However, in its DNA, it is above all a company that responds to a social mission.
Its scope is also more than local, because every dollar of purchase invested in a collective enterprise has equivalent spinoffs in the community. And no, the social economy is not marginal in Quebec!
In Montreal alone, the social economy maintains more than 67,000 direct jobs, generates $11.7 billion in annual revenue and represents nearly 2,800 businesses (NPOs and cooperatives) on the island.
It is therefore an integral part of Montreal’s economic structure and of our daily lives, if we think of early childhood centers (CPE), home care services and seniors, socio-professional integration companies or those that promote access to healthy food, culture, sports and recreation, affordable housing, and public and natural spaces.
The social economy is gaining momentum in Quebec
Just a year ago, the government unveiled its Public Procurement Strategy – Prioritizing Quebec Purchasing1 which aims to encourage the purchase of Quebec goods and services and which will represent, by 2026, an increase of $1.5 billion for local businesses. This strategy also aims more broadly to encourage public bodies and municipalities to source more locally.
To achieve this objective, supporting purchases from social economy enterprises is essential. Better, it is necessary to accelerate the movement! Already, 35 major public and private institutions in Quebec have joined The social economy, I buy!, a Montreal initiative of the Social Economy Council of the Island of Montreal (CESIM) which aims to increase partnerships and support purchases from social economy enterprises. To date, more than 1,800 contracts between public and private institutions and participating social economy enterprises have been signed, for a value of more than $55 million.
Choosing to do business with the social economy means opting for a fairer, more inclusive and more united economy that meets the needs of communities, without compromising those of the future. Its ultimate goal is not profit, but rather the well-being of communities.
The movement is underway and will continue to grow thanks to the support of citizens, organizations, small or large, private or public, who choose the social economy on a daily basis.
Will you be the next to join the movement?