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Last update : November 2006
History
Caisse d'économie des Travailleuses et Travailleurs (Quebec) was created in 1971 by the
national federation of trade unions (CSN) of the Quebec region. They wanted to extend the
union action to the field of consumption and life conditions. The members of the trade
union wanted to take the control of their savings and demonstrate that it was possible to
act for another development and thus to manage their own saving in an alternative way.
The Caisse was created to allow the financing of collective projects aiming at improving the living conditions of workers.
On the 1st of October 2004, the Caisse changed its name in Caisse d'économie solidaire Desjardins.
Mission and Principles
The aim of the Caisse is to contribute to a fair and bound up Quebec in the perspective of
a sustainable development. They want to support the development of solidarity economy and
collective Entrepreneurship mainly in four fields: trade union initiatives, co-operative,
community and, culture.
Structure and Activities
31October 2006, the Caisse has four main sectorial members: 751 from the trade
union movement, 554 from the co-operative movement, 788 from the community sector and 229
from the cultural sector. To these 2 322 member organisations you have to add
7 060 individual members and 369 companies private. The total is thus of 9 751 members.
To help entrepreneurs to develop their projects, they have established partnerships with public or semipublic bodies, local funds or networks (Social Investment Network in Quebec, RISQ ; the Central Caisse Desjardins ; FondAction ; other local development funds ...) and, advisers.
They offer all services and financial products available on the market. Customers can operate by telephone, through the network of local branches, ATM and the Desjardins website. They also have specific products and services for specific needs: programme for building co-operatives, solidarity savings available for all members, solidarity loan for co-op organisations, "emergency" loan for co-operative, trade union and cultural organisations who are in a critical finance situation.
New developments planned
The Caisse has been solicitated from everywhere to take part in the globalization of the
solidarity. A protocole of cooperation has been signed between the Caisse d'Economie des
Travailleuses et travailleurs and Bianca Etica Italia. Moreover, the Caisse supported the
CSN and the Centrale Unique des Travailleurs du Brésil to set up a network of
cooperatives of debt and credits in that country.
Key figures
| in CAD ( year ended 31 Decembre) | 2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002 |
| Total equity | 6 631 840 | 6 638 080 | 6 616 375 |
6 615 555 |
| Loans to enterprises to private people |
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178 696 375 74 799 737 |
During the financial year 2003, the total savings of the members amounted
CAD 270 507 388 (small decrease of 3.7%) and the total loans increased by 17.8% to reach
CAD 292 003 033.
The total of loans amounts to 315 257 603 CAD in 2004.
The total of loans amount to 346 705 239 CAD in 2005.
