Canadian Labour Sponsored Investment Funds

[Deborah Groban Olson <dgo@esoplaw.com>]

Dear Homesteaders:

        I am forwarding this material about Canadian Labor Sponsored Investment
Funds (LSIFs) from Joan Stockinger. Joan was the CFO of the Crocus Fund in
Manitoba for many years, and is a member of the COG Executive Board.
Another source of information about the Quebec Fund is its  founding chair
and current information officer Fernand Daoust<fdaoust@fondsftq.com>. Your
best bet for a quick reply from him is to write in French.

Deb Olson

Deborah -- 
FYI I did get the email and the interim report which I have not yet read, but 
is readable, and will get back to you ASAP if I have comments.

Deborah and Dan ---
Re information about labour sponsored funds (LSIF):
There are about 25 in Canada, most in Ontario.
Crocus Fund in Manitoba is the only one with explicit worker ownership 
provisions with regard to its investee companies.
First Ontario (quite small) has some emphasis too.
Neither at this time have Web sites.

All the LSIF Funds share a "capital retention" focus.  All involve the 
gathering of capital from many individuals (like mutual funds) and all have 
requirements to reinvest in their community.  Most are provincially  based 
(the investment requirement applies to a province)  A few are national (the 
investment requirement applies across Canada) (but remember Canada is smaller 
than our larger states in population -- about 30 Million people.)   

Thus all the Funds end up building/spreading capital ownership in local 
business, in a community, in the form of mutual fund holdings.  There are 
tens of thousands of Canadian investors at this time.  And billions under 
management (5 billion+)  In this way, the Funds, even without an employee 
ownership objective in their investee companies, do further the broader goal 
of community capital ownership.

The following Funds have WEB sites which might be of interest to COGS:

Quebec Solidarity Fund
web site:  http://www.fondsftq.com
There is both an English and French version (you have to click on it, it is 
obvious.)
This was the first of the Funds; it has strong labour support/involvement; it 
is strongly provincial in its development focus.  There is good information 
about the philosophy, governing principles and origins the funds in the 
section "About the Fund" and "Background".  The "Statistics" section is 
impressive -- the amount of capital gathered for local investment cannot fail 
to impress.  (Quebec has a population of about 7 Million, I think).

Working Opportunity Fund
British Columbia (western most province of Canada)
html://www.wofund.com

There is a jazzy site designed to appeal to investors and the financial 
community.   There is good background information for COGS and interested 
parties in the "FAQS" section -- frequently asked questions.  

Hope this is useful and you can post some of it.
Next I will find some more information about Crocus Fund to "upload" for you. 
 I will need to get approval from Sherman/Crocus for anything not in the 
public domain.  I don't anticipate this being a problem; (but must do as I am 
no longer working there, and it is a public company).

I will try and put together a brief (1-2 page) summary of the LSIF situation, 
capturing what might  be interesting to the COGS community.

Sorry this has taken so long.

Joan



Attorney Deborah Groban Olson
Chair
Captial Ownership Group
c/o Shared Equity Strategies, Inc.
3163 Penobscot Bldg.
645 Griswold St.
Detroit, MI 48226
(ph) 313/ 331-7821  or 964-2460
(f) 313/ 331-2567     or 964-4065

dgo@EsopLaw.com
www.EsopLaw.com