Hi everyone -

Today, on Friday, October 2, we respectfully heard the decision of the court, to approve the sale of MEC to Kingswood Capital Management, under the Companies’ Creditor Arrangement Act (CCAA) in favour of secured creditors such as RBC.

The court’s decision is deeply disappointing. For nearly 50 years, Mountain Equipment Co-operative has been a member-owned institution, led by great people who treasured the great outdoors, and who collectively built one of Canada’s greatest co-operative enterprises.

We are working with our friends at Co-ops and Mutuals Canada to understand any legal options - there are fundamental legal principles at stake relating to co-ops.

We are thinking of our adventure buddies and neighbours, the MEC employees all across the country who shared our co-op’s values of quality, integrity, co-operation, creativity, leadership, sustainability, stewardship, humanity and adventure. We know MEC won’t be the same for you, and it probably hasn’t been the same for a while. We love you. We thank you. We want the best for you, and we will be seeing you at our favourite outdoor spots someday soon.

Join us on Monday, Oct 5 as we hold a town hall to discuss this campaign, its people, and what steps we might take next.

Register here: www.SaveMEC.ca

The sale of MEC to Kingswood absolutely breaks our trust - and Kingswood has asked us to trust them that they will live up to their commitments and our values. We will be watching Kingswood closely so that they meet their commitment to retain 75% of MEC employees. We must support all members of our MEC community, during a difficult transition time of corporate restructuring and a pandemic.

Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers and the thousands of people who’ve engaged online. Thank you for the hundreds of thousands of signatures and dollars you’ve contributed to tell creditors, foreign companies and the BC Supreme Court that we built and own MEC, we had a right to know it was going to be sold, and a right to provide viable alternatives to keep the co-op.

Do not lose this momentum as member-owners! We cannot have co-ops diminish any more democratic control, economic participation, education, training and information or other key co-op principles. Governments must take action to prevent this from ever happening again.

Exercise your rights and responsibilities in the numerous other co-ops and credit unions you belong to. Many leaders in these member-owned organizations over the last two weeks have absolutely believed in the rights of members, and understand our enormous contribution to Canada’s economy. Many others were completely silent, and you own and control those co-operatives too. Continue to keep in touch with your other co-ops and credit unions, hold them accountable to your shared values, make member representation and inclusivity matter now more than ever.

Let’s work with each other to build and keep co-ops strong - as real examples of business done better, as sites of democracy in our economy, and as organizations that are ours.

Take care of yourself and each other - and see you Monday at a town hall to talk next steps: https://savemec.ca