The Co-operative Movement and Alphonse Desjardins
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Alphonse Desjardins at his work table inside the offices of the Caisse populaire de Lévis, then located at the Société des Artisans |
In 1984, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada (HSMBC) recognized the national historic importance of the co-operative movement, especially the establishment of the Caisses Populaires Desjardins. By this designation, the Commission highlighted the social and economic importance of the co-operative movement as it arose in Ontario and in Nova Scotia, known as the Co-operative Union of Canada, and in the Prairie provinces as the Grain Growers' Grain Company. Founded in 1900 by Alphonse Desjardins, from the City of Lévis, the Caisses Populaires represented the Canadian
co-operative movement in Quebec in the area of savings and loans. These "people's banks" are the foundation of the most important integrated financial group of the co-operative movement in Canada and around the world.
The founder of the Mouvement Desjardins aimed to improve the financial circumstances of French Canadians by giving them access to a savings and loans institution that had representation from its members and local management in each Quebec parish. Alphonse Desjardins was born in Lévis in 1854 and died there in 1920. He devoted the last 20 years of his life to consolidating and promoting the movement he had launched, while working as a French stenographer for the House of Commons in Ottawa,from 1892 to 1917. In 1971, the HSMBC acknowledged the contribution of Alphonse Desjardins by designating him as a person of national historic importance, recognizing the leadership role he took in the development of Canada's economy.
