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Research - Solutions and Alternatives
Toronto dollars (www.torontodollar.com)
by Stephen Pederson
-established to replace an hour barter system called LETS, similar
to the Calgary dollars replacing the Chinook hours.
-consumers exchanges Canadian dollars at par for Toronto dollars
at participation banks and are both set up by the Toronto dollars
organization.
-the dollars can then be spent at a participating businesses they
have a list of about 200 different registered merchants
-The Toronto dollars employ what they call the 10% solution
-businesses are the only ones who can exchange Toronto dollars
back into Canadian currency and when they do so they receive $0.90
Canadian for every Toronto dollar exchanged.
-The 10% profit made by the organization goes to the Toronto dollar
community projects fund.
-The projects fund is used to give grants to about 40 different
community groups. Over $250,000 has been given in grants so far.
-Businesses can also reuse the Toronto dollars at their full
value. They may purchase stock locally or use them to pay part
of staff wages. The organization has also developed a plan where
businesses hire welfare recipients and pay them entirely in the
local currency. This represents an advantage for those on welfare
because government assistance is not clawed back when they begin
to earn Toronto dollars.
-Originally Toronto dollars came with expiry dates. It was the
expectation of the organizers that most the dollars would be cashed
in by merchants before this date.
This was not the case and so the expiry date was removed from
the new printing of bills and all the old bills with expiry dates
are still valid.
-The organization faces the problem of still being very localized.
It began in the St. Lawrence market area and it has remained concentrated
there, despite being in circulation for over six years. The major
drawback is that businesses are reluctant to accept a 10% cut
in their revenue. Also the process of exchanging the currency
is difficult and depends mainly on volunteer labour at a few booths
in the St. Lawrence Market and an ATM machine that has required
a few repairs.
-The real triumph for the currency would be the acceptance of
a partial payment of property taxes in Toronto dollars. Talks
with the city have been on going but so far no action.
More info @ www.torontodollar.com
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