QUEBEC CITY – La Coopérative de câblodistribution de l’arrière-pays (CCAP) announced Wednesday its merger with two local cooperatives — La Coopérative de câblodistribution Sainte-Catherine-Fossambault (CSCF) and Les Productions 4 éléments (P4E).
“Employees, members and all the activities of the 3 coops are now centralized under the CCAP name to form one, united cooperative,” reads a CCAP press release.
CCAP has distributed telecom services in the northern Quebec City region for almost 40 years. The cooperative is composed of 19,500 members and 69 employees. CCAP also operates a local TV channel, CCAP.Tv, which focuses on news, events and the people of the territory it serves, which includes Lac-Beauport, Stoneham-et-Tewkesbury, Notre-Dame-des-Laurentides, Lac-Saint-Charles, Lac-Delage and Sainte-Brigitte-de-Laval.
Faced with growing competition in recent years, while operating in a limited territory despite residential development, CCAP has developed a strategic plan to solidify its operations, diversify its services and increase growth sustainability, the release explains.
“These additions to the cooperative’s structure will permit it to grow its potential client base in telecommunication product distribution while also diversifying its activities which include a new array of video production services,” the release says.
“We are happy to announce to our members the realization of these projects on which we have been working for several months,” said CCAP’s general manager, Stéphane Arseneau, in the release. “We strongly believe in the strength and power of the cooperative movement in Québec; a movement in which we are involved on multiple levels. By grouping all three cooperatives under the CCAP name we are convinced that the members and employees will benefit from the change.”
Founded nearly 40 years ago, CSCF provides residential phone services, internet and digital television in the municipalities of Ste-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Fossambault-sur-le-Lac and Lac-St-Joseph. The CSCF cooperative is composed of more than 2,000 members, employs five people and has five members on its board.
“CSCF members will eventually gain access to CCAP’s services such as IP television, better internet plans, and cellphone products as well as the customer service of an experienced team,” the press release says.
“CCAP is a reference in the telecommunication cooperative world in the province of Québec,” said Jérôme Tremblay, president of the CSCF board. “We share similar challenges and values. When we evaluated the different possibilities to permit us to preserve our acquired experience, jobs, and local services, we turned to CCAP to survey their interest. We are very pleased and convinced that we made the right decision for the good and future of both our organisations.”
Founded in 2006, P4E is a workers’ cooperative composed of nine employees. It specializes in video production and distinguishes itself by its creative approach to the process “from idea creation to the realization and postproduction of a project,” the release says.
“In addition to their vast experience in corporate videos, publicity projects, video clips, news reports, and documentaries, P4E has also been the main producer of the CCAP.Tv channel since its launch 11 years ago.”
This new division within CCAP “will evolve under the name of CCAP Productions, creator of experience. Their offer will eventually include enhanced services including, for example, photography, studio rental, narration and many others,” the release says.
“We are also a coop and we have been working with CCAP.Tv ever since its creation,” said P4E board member Julie Lemarié, explaining the reasoning behind the merger with CCAP. “Our offices are already situated in their building and we always have appreciated and valued their approach and model. Therefore, when we thought about opportunities to increase durability and develop our coop, the merger with CCAP was a natural choice.”
Photo of (l-r) CSCF’s Jérôme Tremblay and CCAP’s Stéphane Arseneau provided by CCAP.
