Dawson Co-operative Union

Date of Incorporation: May 28, 1921
Membership: approximately 10 000
Activities: Consumer-owned groceries, hardware, clothing, lumber, agro and petroleum products
Area Served: Dawson Creek, BC

The Hamlet of Dawson Creek

Before the first European settlers arrived in Dawson Creek, the Peace River region was home to three aboriginal peoples: the Beaver, the Sekanni, and the Algonkian Cree, who arrived just before the beginning of the fur trade. By 1921, Dawson Creek was also home to a handful of homesteaders. The Peace River Region was known for its rich agricultural land, particularly its suitability for grasses. Some older citizens call it ‘the last frontier.’ A homesteader could get a quarter section (160 acres) for $10 on the condition that they clear the land, and reside there for at least 6 months of the year for 3 years. There were no roads into The Peace region, except for the Edson Trail. The journey was arduous. In a letter written to a student in 1945, a homesteader describes the journey:

In February 1914, my brother and I started for the homestead. My partner on the first trip to the district left us—he said he had had enough hardship already in the Peace River country. We went by railway to Athabasca, loaded our belongings on sleighs and drove up the river on the ice by way of Mirror Lading and Lesser Slave Lake. [Then it was] over land via Sturgeon Lake and Grande Prairie, and arrived on the homestead on March 19th, after 20 days on the road from Athabasca. We had to camp outside most of the time as there were very few road-ranches at that time. Most of the other settlers came in by way of Edson, Alberta—which took about the same length of time and hardship.1

The delivery of mail and supplies was sporadic and expensive. Hauling goods cost from 5 to 7 cents per pound, and flour was $15 per hundred pound bag. “Prices got so high we could not afford to buy anything, they were way out of sight,” said homesteader Silvio Ravelli.

Outrageous Prices Impetus to Co-op Formation

Ravelli, and a handful of other homesteaders decided they had to do something to bring reasonable prices to the district. He and a man named Ed Hauger both had previous co-op experience. Ravelli had worked in a miners’ co-op in Alberta and Hauger had worked in consumer co-operatives in the Dakotas and before that in Norway. Headed by these two men, the group of homesteaders quickly moved towards the foundation of their own co-op.

On April 9th, 1921, Ravelli, Hauger, W. Cusack, G.C. Wertenbaker, and J. McDiarmid were elected as directors for the proposed co-op at the Dawson United Farmers meeting. Four days later, the directors determined the rules for association as well as a proposed name for the co-op. Another 4 days later, on April 21, the first general meeting was held in the Dawson Creek School. At this meeting the membership legally elected the directors, adopted the memorandum for incorporation and the rules for the association, and moved to apply to the Registrar of Companies for incorporation.

The members of the proposed “Dawson Co-operative Union” took their rules straight from the Cooperative Act of BC, and recorded them carefully in their minutes:

a) The object of the association shall be as stated in Schedule A of the Co- operative Association Act of B.C.

b) The liabilities of stockholders shall be according to Section 5, article 2 of the act.

c) The capital of the association shall consist of an unlimited number of shares at$25 each.

d) The rules of the association shall be the rules of Schedule B of the act.

Membership Drive and Share Selling Campaign

Without waiting to obtain confirmation of incorporation from the Registrar’s office, the founding members initiated an aggressive share selling campaign by visiting farms in the surrounding communities.

The results of this campaign is reported in the minutes of a meeting dated May 28, 1921: “Meeting was called for the purpose of receiving money from canvassers from shares sold by them, and to turn all available money over to Mr. Cusack, who is to go to Grande Prairie to purchase the first load of merchandise for the store.”2 The sum of $875 was turned over to Cusack at this meeting.3

Cusack then set off in a wagon to the nearest wholesaler in Grande Prairie. “The money did not buy too much,” stated Ravelli, “but it was a start.” 4

Early Growth

Soon after the co-op’s first purchase, the group decided to rent a building for the store. On June 9th, 1921 the co-op rented a 2-room building for $200 per year, which was paid in shares and merchandise. A year later the co-op reported a surplus of $350.86.5

In January 1923 the co-operative declared its first dividend of 8% on share capital and 2% refund on shareholders purchases, and the reserve fund was increased. At the annual general meeting of 1923, the membership instituted changes making it easier for new members to join. “We admit new members who are willing to pay $5 down on a share, the balance to be made up by dividends, and that no dividends be withdrawn by those members till the share is paid up in full”.

“We almost went broke, but a lot of credit is due Ed Hauger, the one who really helped the business get going. Everyone supported the move one hundred percent. If it had not been for the early support we would have gone broke”, said Ravelli6.

Ed Hauger became the manager in 1923 and was joined by Fred Newby in 1927 to help serve the homesteaders, trappers and ranchers that came into the co-op. By now, the old town’s population had grown to about 100 people. Newby took over as manager in 1944, when Hauger retired. By that time the store was doing $400 000 in sales per year.7 Drawing on his previous co-op experience, Hauger created a vision for the co-op. In order to have a proper building for the co-op, Hauger sold some shares and used his own personal guarantee to promote a building program for the co-op. The members approved spending up to $300 in cash for the new building. The store was built on land contributed by Bill Neve, a co-op member.

The Railway Came to Town

In 1931 the railway came to Dawson Creek. Actually, the railway stopped 1.5 miles away from what was to become known as ‘The Old Town.’ The Co-op store on Bill Neve’s land was moved on rollers and pulled by horses to the new town. It took 2 ½ weeks! The store remained open for business while rolling towards the new town.

Shortly after the railway arrived the hamlet had grown to 500 people and, in 1936, incorporated as the Village of Dawson Creek. For the villagers the co-op continued to be a busy place, especially on Saturdays when the farmers would congregate and visit with each other. In the early days, the co-op had three branch stores in nearby rural communities. These stores were not only meeting places for farmers, but also crucial links to the outside world because they provided postal and telephone services. Mabel Armitrage worked with her father in the Kilkerran branch store. She writes:

The Dawson Co-op had three branch stores all formed in the early 1930s. The one I am most familiar with was the Kilkerran Branch.

The Kilkerran Store was located about 16km from Dawson Creek on the Dawson Creek-Ft. St. John Highway. My father and brother built the log building that comprised the store, post office and telephone. My father, Charles Stephenson, operated the store with the help of the family.

During the building of the Alaskan Highway the store became a place for the US troops and construction workers to buy snacks and soft drinks, and have a friendly chat.

The store was closed in 1945. The Alaskan Highway by-passed the location by 3.5km and by this time, the patrons had cars and did their shopping in town.

Another branch store was located at Dawson Creek. It also had post office and telephone services. This branch became a private operation in the 1940s and is still carrying on business.

The third branch, Sunset Prairie, was located 64km North-West of Dawson Creek, and was a similar operation to the other two. It was run as a co-op branch for about 10 years and then became a private operation. It is no longer in business. These stores were located in rural communities and served a real need. There were very few cars and a trip by horse and buggy to Dawson Creek would take 3-6 hours one way.The store was a meeting place for neighbours who were eager to pick up on local news and gossip.8

The Explosion of 1943

The following excerpt from the Calverley Collection9 describes the fire of 1943, which destroyed a large portion of the town and affected the Co-op:

One Sunday morning in February 1943 the Co-op building stood alone in a block of burnt rubble—a forlorn sight. Not one pane of glass was left, the doors were all either blown off or torn off, the three chimneys were sheared off flush with the roof and the stucco walls were smoked and cracked. Inside, the main floor was a mess of broken and overturned fixtures; the rubble all coated with a thin sheet of ice.

Ten days later, the Co-op store was all cleaned up, re-stocked and doing a roaring business again.

The insurance companies agreed to a reasonable settlement and by the end of the year the only visible signs of the catastrophe were some irremovable scars on the building and fixtures, and a new and better warehouse replacing the one lost.

The war was now on, but merchandise was still plentiful. The government established price controls. As a co-operative is owned and controlled by its own customers, it was plainly obvious that profiteering would be completely ridiculous. Consequently, to the coop, the regulations were merely an annoying number of forms and reports to be filled in. Very early in 1942, the village of Dawson Creek awoke one morning, to find itself in the middle of the war effort. The American Army moved in thousands of troops to build the Alaska Highway, and civilian contractors promptly followed them. Acres and acres of buildings were erected and trainloads of materials rolled in at all times of the day and night. Every truck in the entire district was hauling on the new road and hundreds of trucks moved in from all over western Canada.

On February 13, 1943 an explosion destroyed an entire block in the heart of the town. The Co-op’s main store building was saved, mainly through the efforts of American Army personnel. The village had no water supply system and the only water available was the run off in the road ditches and for a time it appeared the whole village would burn.

Martial law was proclaimed and the Army ordered the merchandise to be removed from the Co-op building. Store contents were hurriedly thrown into trucks and then unloaded in great mounds like haystacks on the golf course, about half a mile away.

To the Co-op the mounds—made up of dry goods, clothing, hardware and groceries— represented about $50,000. Fortunately, about $30,000 in groceries stored in the basement was not disturbed.

The Fire of 1948

In 1948, fire struck again. Gerry Clare wrote the following article.10

The Co-op had been the only business not destroyed in the February 1943 when an explosion and fire leveled the whole block bounded by Alaska and 102nd Avenue and 10th and 11th Streets. The Co-op was damaged, of course, but it was another five years before disaster struck it.

Early on the morning of Sunday, February 8 in 1948 a fire started on the second floor of the Co-op. There were 10 people living in apartments on that floor above the store and it was Eileen Hart who first noticed the smoke and wakened her brother and parents. Everyone escaped safely from the building but the fire quickly spread and was soon virtually
out of control.

The Volunteer Fire Department did everything it could to save the store but the combination of low water pressure and extreme cold made it impossible to do much more than keep other nearby structures from burning. The fire burned all through the day and through Sunday night and continued to smolder throughout Monday.

The total loss was estimated at $250 000 at the time with insurance covering the stock for $80 000 and the building itself for $55 000.

The Lake View Credit Union had its offices on the second floor and members could only hope that the records and files would survive in their safe.

Likewise, the directors of the Co-op could only wait for the ashes to cool to see if their vault was fireproof and the records intact. When the manager, Fred Newby, opened the vault with the police and Board members watching, the Co-op records were found to be good condition.

Within days both the Co-op and the Credit Union were back in business in temporary quarters—the Co-op in Aspol Motors and the Credit Union in the old police barracks west of Harper’s Store on 103rd Avenue.

By the middle of March the Co-op warehouse had been converted into a makeshift grocery store and plans were well under way for the rebuilding of the store.

Nearly 300 Co-op members attended the Annual General Meeting in Bud’s Hall and debated the size and design of the store, giving the Board authority to proceed with plans.

By March of 1949 the new building was almost ready and the AGM was held in it so members could see it before it was open to the public. On April 30, Gunnar Mortenson officially opened the store and more than 500 interested shoppers rushed in to enjoy Dawson Creek’s newest and biggest department store.

After the second fire the co-op moved into a new building downtown where it continued to be home to the members even though the volume of business had grown from $1000 per year to $400 000 per year by the mid-forties!

Eighty Years of Success

After the war, Dawson Creek and the businesses within it continued to grow. Situated at the crossroads to the North, Dawson Creek became a shipping and transportation centre.

Harry Giles wrote in the Dawson Creek Star on Nov. 21, 1959:

No place north of Edmonton can compare with Dawson Creek in the fine buildings and variety of stores. The Dawson Co-operative Union, one of the two big department stores, had a sales record in 1957 of over one million dollars. The other—the Hudson’s Bay Company—probably did as much business, if not more, but their figures are not available.

The co-op expanded its goods to include petroleum, hardware and retail items like clothing. In 1976, the co-op built the Co-op Mall, which until recently has been home to the co-op’s cafeteria and its hardware, food and clothing departments, as well as other local businesses.

The Co-op celebrated its eightieth anniversary in 2001.

Contemporary Situation

In 2001 the Dawson Co-op built an impressive Home and Agro Centre by drawing on its retained earnings. This reflects its healthy financial position. The co-op’s petroleum, home and agricultural products and services all provide good financial returns and the grocery portion of the co-op’s activities is also profitable despite the competition the co-op faces.

The sale of dry goods has been more difficult for the co-op; it closed its Dry Goods (clothing, appliances, and hardware) Department in 2000. At the time of writing the store has re-opened the department, quite likely in response to members’ requests that the co-op continue to offer dry goods.

For many years the Dawson Co-op store has had to deal with competition. Until a few years ago, Dawson Creek also had Hudson’s Bay, K-Mart, and Kresge stores, all of which sold clothing among other items. Today, the only dry goods competition in Dawson Creek is the Zellers store. The co-op faces grocery competition from both the IGA and the recently rebuilt Safeway. As well, many residents of the Dawson Creek area are willing to drive the 1.5 hours to Grande Prairie to shop at the ‘big box’ discount stores.

Members of the co-op observe that younger customers prefer to shop at Safeway, IGA or the new PriceSmart Foods, which opened on December 1. This situation highlights the need for the co-op to inform members of the community about the individual and collective economic and social benefits of the co-operative system. It also underscores the need for the co-op to educate the members about how loyalty to the co-op affects the organisation’s success.

A number of people feel that one of the reasons the co-op has difficulty attracting and retaining younger grocery customers is because the Co-op Mall, built in 1976, is outdated and in need of redesign and renovations. Currently, the Co-op is researching the various financing and design options available to it in preparation for a decision about the future of the Co-op’s grocery department in particular and the Mall in general.

Major renovations raise some serious and difficult questions for the co-op. These include: How much of the profits should the co-op redistribute to the members? How much of the profits should be used for redevelopment? Should the co-op pursue conventional financing? Should the co-op enter into a special arrangement with Federated Co-ops—a second tier co-op that has a special program to assist local co-operatives with expansion projects? These are just a few of the complexities that confront co-ops in need of major reconstruction.

For the Dawson Co-op Union, dealing with these complexities has created tension and conflict. Members are divided on the issue and are passionate about their point of view, which is not surprising considering the co-op’s long and loyal history.

Changing Times

Due to the trends of the previous decade, the Dawson Co-op saw itself in the midst of considerable turmoil in 2000. Competition combined with a negative perception of the condition of the mall caused the Board of Directors to implement a strategy that would demolish the existing 60 000 square foot mall and have Federated Co-ops replace it with a new 28 000 square foot grocery store, which would then be leased back to the Co-op.

This strategy is increasingly popular in the West, but it was not acceptable to the membership of the Dawson Co-Operative Union. 1000 people showed up at the Annual General meeting in April of 2000 to protest the board’s direction. The end result was that four new directors were elected to stop the proposal and to produce renovation plans, providing the mall building was actually in sound condition.

The AGM in April of 2001 again drew a large turnout of members to make sure the board and the new General Manager continued to move towards improving the facilities and, most importantly, owning them at the end of the day. Three more directors were elected to assure this would happen. The Board has determined the integrity of the existing mall and has been very busy looking at renovation options.

Growth in Sales and Service

Despite these challenges the membership continues to attract 20 to 30 new members per month, as it has done since 1985. In the last 10 years the co-op’s sales have increased from $20.7 million in 1991 to $28.3 million per year in 2000. Furthermore, in the years 1998, 1999, and 2000 the coop paid, on average, $600 000 per year in dividends to its members.

The co-op has expanded its service to include owning a card lock petroleum facility in Chetwynd, in 1997; providing accounting services for Fort St. John Co-op (since 1996); and providing both accounting and management services for Rycroft Co-op, in Alberta (since 1995). In addition, since 1980, the total number of members has increased by more than 2000, to a total of 9404 members in the year 2000.

Keeping the money working in the community

In 2000, the Dawson Co-op paid out over $727 000 to its members in cash. This was in the form of general cash repayment and equity withdrawal payments. In the last 10 years the Co-op has paid out over $6.6 million dollars in cash to its members. The Dawson Co-op donated over $35 000 in support of over 160 community organizations and events in the year 2000; in the last ten years this amount totals $310 000.

In 2000 the co-op directly infused $3 687 000 ($887 000 of non-employment and $2.8 million of employment income) into the local economy. The 120 employees earn an annual total of $2.8 million dollars, and the co-op pays $125 000 in taxes to the city of Dawson Creek plus $4500 to the town of Chetwynd.

Community Involvement

The co-op is locally owned; therefore the surplus—when returned to members—is kept working in the local economy. In addition, the co-op takes into consideration whether or not the community will benefit when it is faced with business decisions. In other words, the co-op takes into account not only their economic bottom line, but also the interest of the community. One example of this is the co-op’s recent decision regarding building a new Home and Agro Centre. The co-op could either build a wood or concrete building. The co-op decided to go with a wood frame building because it could hire a local contractor to do the work, whereas with a concrete building it would have to hire an outside contractor.

The Co-op has a Co-op Kids’ Club, which is free to children under the age of 12 and which holds events such as annual Halloween and Christmas parties. Seniors, many of whom have been members of the co-op all their lives, also frequent the co-op. The cafeteria in the Co-op Mall is affectionately referred to as ‘the meeting place.’ Here, you’ll find easy and abundant smiles inviting you to sit for coffee and listen to plenty of stories and knowledge about the co-op and the
town.

End Notes

1. 1The author is unknown but is thought to have been Ed Hauger, the co-op manager from 1923 to 1944. See http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part04-Old%20Timers/4-021.html
2. See the full quote at: http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part05-Dawson%20Creek/5-012.html
3. http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part05-Dawson%20Creek/5-014.html 
4. Mr. Ravelli Recalls Co-op Formation, Calverly Collection http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part05Dawson%20Creek/5-014.html 
5. See note 3.
6. http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part05-Dawson%20Creek/5-014.html)
7. http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part05-Dawson%20Creek/5-013.html
8. In a letter to Nicole Chaland dated February 5, 2002.
9. http://www.calverley.dawson-creek.bc.ca/Part05-Dawson%20Creek/5-011.html This excerpt was used with permission from the Peace River Historical Society. To contact the archivists, email dcarchives@pris.bc.ca or to find out more about Peace River history, check out www.calverly.dawson.bc.ca
10. Clare, Gerry The Day the Co-op Store Burned Down: The second worst Fire in Dawson Creek History on a cold February Morning in 1948, The Mirror, [Co-op newsletter] Oct 12, 0—Historical Society Archives

Case Study Information

This case study was developed for a report entitled Situating Co-operatives in British Columbia – 2000 - 2001, which was prepared for the Province of B.C. (Ministry of Community Development, Co-operatives and Volunteers) by the British Columbia Institute for Co-operative Studies, University of Victoria. To obtain the information for the case study BCICS and the co-op entered into a partnership agreement. BCICS is grateful to the co-op members for their contributions and time. The case study is published with the approval of the co-operative

Researchers: Nicole Chaland and Laura Sjolie
Date of research: 2001
Author: Nicole Chaland
Date of writing: 2001
Editing: BCICS editorial group
Supervision: Kathleen Gabelmann, BCICS Research Co-ordinator

Location