La Peche to become Quebec's first fair-trade community

The municipality of La Pche in western Quebec is becoming the province's first fair-trade community.

Transfair Canada will officially certify the municipality at a ceremony Friday at the Black Sheep Inn in Wakefield, a town in La Pche.

The non-profit organizationoffers certification toCanadian merchants who ensure their suppliers pay producers a fair price for items such as coffee and sugar.

Anne Winship, who heads the Wakefield-La Pche fair-trade steering committee and owns the local Bean Fair Coffee business, said the goal of certification is to bring attention to fair trade and to local businesses at the same time.

"Wakefield and La Pche, we're pretty crunchy granola and basically I wanted to do it just to reward the citizens for their social activism," she said.

"It's a great project because it brings everyone together as a community and it's helping people on the other side of the world."

To be certified, the town needed to:

• Demonstrate widespread community support.
• Be home to a certain number of businesses that sell or serve fair trade products.
• Pass a resolution from the municipal government supporting the concept and agreeing to serve fair-trade coffee and sugar.

La Pchewill bethe second fair-trade community in Canada. Wolfville, N.S., became the first when it was certified in April.