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> All this to say, it would be great to see more capital for co-ops in the form of traditional loans with favourable interest rates.

Sure, that would be great. But what can govt do today to incentivize that?

I'd say just relax (tax) law on w-coops to incentivize them compared to the less favorable forms of incorporation.

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Especially in Canada, where capital is tight and productivity is low, I think incentivizing co-ops is a great idea.

The Canadian gov't offers some grants for co-ops, but they are a pittance. Making debt cheaper for co-ops relative to corps (maybe via additional tax breaks on interest?) is, I think super important.

Quebec probably has the single best cooperative financing ecosystem in the world (1B+$). There’s a need for more risk-driven investment instruments in the sector however to seed early stage ventures. Most of the funds end up getting reinvested in existing cooperatives who can already access traditional funding.

What do you mean by trad funding? Loans? Bonds? Equity investments?

Mainly debt instruments (loans, lines of credit, etc.) and occasionally preferred shares.

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