Yvon is the author of the chapter Local Development and Social Economy in Quebec Province (Canada) in The Local Development Ebook.
He has a long history of involvement in the labour and social movements in Quebec and Canada. He was founding President of the Corporation de developpement economique communautaire de Quebec (cache) in 1994, and member of the organizing committee of the Global Meetings on Community Economic Development in Sherbrooke, Quebec in 1998. Since November 2003, he has co-edited a monthly international e-newsletter on local development (cache) that is published in four languages. From 2004 to 2008, he was a Board member of the Groupe d’economie solidaire du Quebec. He has been a CCEDNet member since 2003, involved in the International Subcommittee from 2003 to 2007, and President of CCEDNet’s International Committee (cache) since it was created in 2007. In December 2012, became a member of the CCEDNet Board of directors.
His most significant international involvement since 2004 has been in the Intercontinental Network for the Promotion of the Social Solidarity Economy (RIPESS (cache)). He has participated in many RIPESS activities in Africa (2005), Europe (2009), and Asia (2007, 2009, and 2011). He took part in the 2005 and 2009 World Social Forums as well as the 2007 and 2009 US Social Forums. He is co-author with Emily Kawano of Visions Related to Building the Solidarity Economy and Related Alternatives (cache) in North America. He has also been a member of CCEDNet’s Governance Committee to update the by-laws and elections procedures that were adopted in 2007, and was Elections Officer from 2008 to 2012. He represents the CDEC de Quebec (cache) in CCEDNet.
Yvon has had fairly frequent exchanges with people in Europe involved in Local Development. In 2001, he visited local LEADER initiatives in Portugal and he has a fairly good knowledge of local development in France.
In November 2010, attended a meeting on local development organised at the Conseil des Regions of the EU in Brussels. He then presented a history of social economy and local development in Quebec.