The FCFQ: a federation that reflects its members

• A few figures...

• Our mission

• Structure of the Federation

• Our services

• Our coordinates

The Québec funeral cooperatives movement, in a few figures:

• 26 member funeral cooperatives

• over 140,000 members

• over 100 points of service

• over 500 employees

• 315 volunteer administrators, people known for their community engagement

• consolidated sales of $31.6 million

• $124.8 million in assets

• over 7,500 families served every year

The Federation of Funeral Cooperatives of Québec is the umbrella structure for all the funeral cooperatives in Québec. Founded in 1987, the Federation currently has 26 member cooperatives all across Québec.

These 26 cooperatives today handle over 90% of the deaths managed by all the funeral cooperatives of Québec. Its head office is located in Sherbrooke.

Its general meeting is comprised of representatives of each of the member cooperatives. Decisions are made democratically on the basis of one cooperative, one vote, regardless of the size of any particular cooperative’s membership or sales.

Our mission

To organize funeral cooperatives for the purpose of developing common services and promoting cooperative development in the field of funeral services.

Structure of the Federation

The general meeting of the Federation elects a board of directors composed of seven persons who must come from seven different cooperatives, thereby ensuring greater representativeness for the cooperatives in the movement.

In order to keep membership dues to a minimum, the Federation has adopted a light and flexible structure. It has only four permanent employees, and hires contract workers as required to carry out specific mandates.

The general managers convene three times a year to exchange information and follow up on the mandates assigned by the board of directors. In addition, the presidents meet twice a year to ensure political follow-up for the issues before the Federation.

In 2007, the members elected the following administrators to the Federation’s board of directors:

Our services

• Technical support for cooperatives in development.

• Consulting services on various projects related to cooperation.

• Training and information on themes related to cooperation and the funeral services sector.

• Promotion of the cooperative format.

• Bulk buying for funeral cooperatives:

  • Building insurance

  • Liability insurance

  • Vehicle insurance

  • Casket purchasing

• Representation to cooperative and governmental bodies in order to promote our members’ interests.

• Competitive and informational intelligence so as to be constantly alert to information that may be useful to funeral cooperatives.

• Organization of general managers’ meetings and presidents’ meetings to encourage the sharing of ideas and resources.

• Organization of an annual convention in order to develop new expertise and highlight our successes.

• Production of publications (leaflets, posters, guides, instalments, videos) to promote the cooperatives’ services.

The Federation of Funeral Cooperatives provides support to persons who want to organize and create a funeral cooperative in their community.

Our coordinates

Federation of Funeral Cooperatives of Québec

548, Dufferin Street

Sherbrooke (Québec) J1H 4N1

Telephone : (819) 566-6303

E-mail : fcfq@reseaucoop.com