Nancy Neamtan at BALTA Event

Mike Lewis at BALTA Event

This BALTA co-sponsored event came at the conclusion of the First International CIRIEC Conference on the Social Economy (October 22-25 in Victoria). Other co-sponsors were the Canadian CED Network, the Canadian Social Economy Hub and the Victoria Community Council. The forum drew an audience of around 50 people.

Speakers at the forum included BALTA members Nancy Neamtan, President/Executive Director of the Chantier de l’économie sociale in Quebec, and Mike Lewis, BALTA’s Director and lead investigator. Other speakers included Olga Navarro-Flores of l’École des sciences de la gestion, Université du Québec à Montréal, and Rupert Downing and Carol Madsen of the Canadian CED Network. A lively discussion with audience members closed out the evening.

BALTA sponsored a public event associated with the first meeting of BALTA members in October 2006. Margie Mendell gave a presentation followed by audience questions and comments.

Margie Mendell is among the leading Canadian scholars and researchers involved in Community Economic Development and the Social Economy, not only in Quebec and Canada, but internationally. Director of the Karl Polanyi Institute of Political Economy at Concordia University, her expertise is sought by provincial, national and international bodies. Her work as a board member of the Chantier l’economie sociale in Quebec has made a hugely important contribution to advancing the formulation of alternative development and finance strategies aimed at strengthening the social economy in Quebec.

Read Margie’s paper.