What is a co-operative corporation and how is it different from a regular business corporation in Ontario?

A co-operative corporation is a corporation organized to serve its members' needs — as consumers, producers, or workers — rather than primarily to maximize a return on invested capital, which is what drives a regular business corporation. Ontario co-operatives are incorporated under their own dedicated statute, the Co-operative Corporations Act, separate from the Business Corporations Act that governs ordinary business corporations, though both create a distinct legal entity separate from its members or shareholders.

The most visible practical difference is control: a regular business corporation generally follows one-share-one-vote, so an investor with more shares has more say. An Ontario co-operative instead runs on one-member-one-vote as its core organizing principle, regardless of how many shares a member holds, so no single member can dominate simply by investing more money. Co-operatives also typically distribute surplus to members based on how much business they did with the co-op (patronage), rather than purely on shareholding. If you're weighing a co-operative structure against an ordinary corporation for a new venture, the right choice depends heavily on whether member control or investor return is the priority.