Hornby Island Co-operatives

Hornby Island is a community steeped in volunteer and co-operative traditions. Members of the Island’s community, from the 1800s to the present day, have known that co-operation is an important aspect of living in such a small, isolated community. This focus has led to the establishment of many co-operative ventures, including a credit union, a consumer co-operative store, community school and hall and a highly successful recycling depot. The following exploration of Hornby’s past and present reveals a tightly knit, co-operative fellowship extending throughout the years.

Hornby Island is a Northern Gulf island located between the BC mainland and Vancouver Island. It is home to tightly knit community of approximately nine hundred residents.¹ (Fig. 1)² Englishmen George Ford and Henry Maude were the first settlers on Hornby Island, arriving with their native wives in the early 1880’s and by 1885, they owned 40% of the Island’s land.³ The Island’s population grew slowly, mostly with immigrants from the British Isles.⁴ The major influx of immigrants came to Hornby in the 1920s, bringing with them new ideas for the community such as formal organizations, a tourist facility and the building of a community hall.⁵ Co-operation was necessary in this burgeoning community and in fact the Community Hall was built in 1928 entirely by volunteers.⁶

As well, the formal organizations of Hornby Island began early in the community’s history. In 1890, the Mutual Improvement Association began and then in 1910, The Progress Club formed. These organizations were mainly social clubs, providing the residents with entertainment and a means of communication with each other.⁷ One family from England, the Bealls, helped to establish organizations such as the Women’s and Farmer’s Institutes, which were ideas they had brought with them from their homeland. These Institutes were the first of their kind to represent and act on behalf of the community’s concerns and members and members included nearly all of Hornby’s residents. The Farmer’s Institute had many functions such as sponsoring debates and lectures, maintaining the cemetery and buying blasting powder in bulk for members. ⁸

In 1942, a credit union was established on the Island, which was initially entirely volunteer run.⁹ Its goal was “to provide financial assistance to local enterprises.”¹⁰ It started with just ten members, each buying in for ten dollars. By 1960, the Credit Union had lent over two hundred thousand dollars and had assets of close to sixty thousand dollars.¹¹ Hilary Brown was a founding member and she was quoted as saying that nearly “every newly bought car, tractor and boat was bought with the Credit Union.”¹² Brown had always been interested in co-operation and felt that, particularly in a small place like Hornby Island, people could truly benefit. In addition to helping to establish the credit union and later the co-op store, Brown and her husband ran British Columbia’s first co-operative campsite.¹³ At the age of ninety-three years old, Brown still resides on Hornby and is an active member of the community.¹⁴

Eventually, the Union Bay Credit Union, which was formed in 1944 on Vancouver Island, took over Hornby Island’s co-operative banking. The Union Bay Credit Union original membership “consisted of local families, colliery workers, fishermen, loggers, and sawmill workers.”¹⁵ The credit union is a member-owned co-operative financial institution that combines member share capital with accumulated reserves and dividends to form permanent equity. Dividends are paid annually and all shareholders are entitled to a vote at annual membership meetings. The Union Bay Credit Union opened the Hornby Island Branch in 1992 and continues to serve the financial needs of the community to this day.¹⁶(Fig. 2)¹⁷

It was during the 1950s that Hornby Islanders really worked together toward their common goals. Their co-operative efforts included the building of a church and school, the development of a ferry service, a ratepayers’ organization, rural mail delivery, electricity service and a proper store. It is clear that most of these developments would not have succeeded without the support of the credit union. ¹⁸ The original community school was perhaps the most to benefit from the credit union, as its savings club was run by the credit union. Presently, the Union Bay Credit Union provides ongoing support to the non-profit Hornby School through community partnership donations.¹⁹

Hornby Island is an isolated community, making food runs costly in both time and energy. Early settlers wanted a local supply of goods and in fact as early as 1920s several residents did sell goods including food and tobacco from their homes. From 1940 to the mid-1950s, Jimmy Loutet ran the “Salt Spray Grocery” in an old sawmill building. The store was not making money and in 1954, Loutet fell off a ladder at the store and promptly quit the business.²⁰ At this point in time, several of the Island’s residents had already been discussing the idea of starting a co-op store. Loutet told them “if you want to take over my store and start a co-op, you’d better get on with it.”²¹ The interested parties worked fast to occupy the store, buying Loutet’s stock, forming a board of directors, hiring a manager and selling shares.²² Original shares were ten dollars, which provided very little store capital. Founding members had very little if any experience with formal co-operation, having instead to learn as they went.²³ Members from other co-ops in Vancouver and on Vancouver Island warned the Hornby Islanders against the idea of starting their own co-op, stating it “wasn’t a sound economic proposition.”²⁴

Indeed, these warnings proved to be true; business was very slow; some days only two customers would appear, and often the manager didn’t get paid or bill payments had to be deferred for months, waiting until the summer customers appeared.²⁵ Summer visitors were and still are very important to the survival of the Co-op, with over half of the store’s annual business occurring during summer months.²⁶

In 1957, the co-op’s net savings were one hundred and fifty dollars and in 1959 two hundred and fifty-six dollars. In 1961 the co-op ran at a net loss of five hundred and nine dollars, but 1969 netted three thousand eight hundred dollars and trends continued to go up.²⁷ Despite these fluctuations and unpredictability, the Islanders pressed on as they all realized how important the store was for Island residents. Business did slowly pick up and the co-op members managed, with the assistance of the credit union, to purchase a half- acre of land for a new building. The property was bought for two hundred and fifty dollars and a twenty-eight by twenty-eight foot store was erected with volunteer labor.²⁸ By December 1955, residents had the first official Hornby Island Co-operative Store.²⁹ This store was known as the “kitchen table” of the community, where there was always a pot of soup on, to be shared with anyone wanting to laugh, cry, talk and visit, thereby bring the community closer together.³⁰(Fig. 3)³¹