Candice Minott Named the Inaugural Recipient of the Isobel and Len Findlay Travel Award

The Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives is delighted to announce Candice Minott has been awarded the inaugural annual Isobel and Len Findlay Travel Award (value: $1,000).  

Candice’s thesis research examines how Saskatchewan credit unions have responded to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action #92 and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), with a focus on the influence of moral suasion as a soft policy tool. A certified co-operative development professional, she applies her expertise beyond academia. As Community Engagement Coordinator at Co-operatives First, Candice supports the development of not-for-profit childcare co-operatives across Western Canada. She will present her research at the 5th ICA-CCR Global Co-operative Research Conference in Montréal in July 2025. 

Candice is a Master of Public Policy student at the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy, supervised by CCSC Director and Strategic Research Fellow Dr. Marc-André Pigeon.  

The annual Isobel and Len Findlay Award provides financial travel support to a graduate student studying co-operatives or the broader social economy to present at an academic-related conference or for travel for other formal academic study or experiences approved by the student's graduate faculty advisor. The Award supports the knowledge mobilization activities of a student whose research and/or course of studies demonstrate academic potential and a commitment to exploring the transformative potential of democratically governed co-operatives and other social economy enterprises.  

The Isobel and Len Findlay Travel Award for the Canadian Centre for the Study of Co-operatives is a USask Graduate Award.  

Congratulations, Candice!  

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About the Isobel and Len Findlay Travel Award 

This new Award is made possible through a generous $30,000 endowment by Professor Emerita and longtime CCSC Research Fellow Isobel Findlay, in honour of Len Findlay, her husband and lifetime collaborator, Professor Emeritus, and great friend of the Centre. Awarded annually, this is an opportunity for graduate students to have the opportunities to present their work, network, and gain exposure to other people and ideas that Isobel and Len enjoyed throughout their careers. Isobel chose the CCSC as the Award’s home because, as she said in a USask interview when the endowment was announced last fall,  “we were both associated—and I am still—with the CCSC. That was the one place where we learned so much and worked together.”  

Isobel added, “co-ops are about economic democracy and social democracy. They are about inclusion, about people having decision-making power. The power isn’t taken away elsewhere. The profits don’t go elsewhere. They stay in the community and support the community. That’s an important dimension of co-ops.”