TheBulletin.ca Journal of Downtown Toronto
Local currency is in crisis mode — any suggestions to help save it?
By Joy Kogawa –
Joy Kogawa
Years ago, when June Callwood was in her prime, some of us gathered mirrors with words written by her, Margaret Atwood and other celebrities (didn’t know any football heroes.) The idea was that the mirrors would be used for a Toronto Dollar fundraiser. That never happened and the mirrors sit in my locker.
What was the Toronto Dollar dream?
It’s different for every one, but I thought that some time in the future, when the cracks in the money system were developing into fissures and people were falling into the abyss, community currencies could weave nets of connection and some pockets of people could survive. It’s not a matter of being big. It’s a matter of being tight. As in close-knit.
Here’s an early morning idea.
What if we had a fundraiser, and hired someone to keep this little volunteer weary light from going out. Maybe it could morph.
Toronto is such a great city. It’s great because of its citizenry. Some of the best among us have been speakers at the Supper Club series. What if we were to ask any and all of them to be part of a fundraising event. If Jorge were still at the market, we could ask to have it at St. Lawrence Hall. Andrew is still with us, and we could ask to have it at the Hot House. An evening with all the speakers having a few moments each to speak on anything they wished. And the mirrors displayed as silent auction items. Plus maybe a live auction.
Email replies with latest at top:
I was the first “merchant” to accept Toronto Dollars for CD sales at the inaugural concert and celebration. Since then I have made a point of going to St. Lawrence and spent a lot of Toronto Dollars there. I sent out emails to all my Toronto contacts urging them to use it. I would be sorry to see it perish.
However it is a huge effort and the costs are high. In order for it to be worth the effort and cover costs it would have to turn over a good half million dollars a year, which would result in perhaps $25 000 toward community causes. I question some of the expenses. $1000 a year insurance for the board? Is that truly necessary, if sufficient reserves are always put away to cover redmptions? What other liabilities could there be? $1000 for phone bills??? It seems that there should hardly be any need for long distance.
While I hate giving up, it seems that if the efforts required to sustain it were rather devoted to supporting other local charities which are alive and well, delivering important services, like Foodshare Metro Toronto, or Eva’s Initiatives, Second Harvest, Street Health or Habitat for Humanity, the net benefit could be much greater.
Coincidentally I received a message yesteray from Rev. Lindsay G. King about the possibility of starting a Community Exchange. I am copying this email to him, also to another interested party, Dan King (not related). Here is an excerpt of what he sent:
It is generally known, and accepted, that our central bank, the Bank of Canada BOC), has the charter which allows it–and all our chartered banks–to create loans and credit denominated in terms of money.
What is not generally known is this: There is no law that prevents any community from organizing a community exchange system (CES)–complementary to the system run by the BOC system. This means that there is nothing to prevent a CES from issuing CES money, or call it public domain money, which is ‘created’ by the traders who use it in the service of the public good.
You will also learn about how we can:
We can harness this power simply by starting a new CES exchange in our area. This gives a community the power to decide, democratically, how its efforts will be deployed. Money and credit creation belongs to the commons. Money and credit are essential and powerful forces of any social economy. As such they must be harnessed and used for the common good.
Second, now familiarize yourself: What is the Web site of the nearest CES to you? It would be interesting for the FLF [Family Life FOundation] to know the name of the CES in your area.
I was astounded to see that the Toronto Dollar was not even listed, though the old LETS system which I also supported is.
CANADIANS HAVE ALWAYS BEEN PRO-SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE
Keep in mind that the CES movement, like the credit union movement, is now part of a world-wide movement. While no one knows who started the first bank, credit union, cooperative, insurance company or CES–I suspect it was one of the religions–we do know that Canadians have always been supporters of social and economic justice.
He sent another interesting link. Surely there must be a potential for cooperation between the various parties.
Perhaps if each of us who have been devoted to the Toronto Dollar could try to find one institution like the St. John’s bakery to agree to use the Toronto Dollar in paying workers and volunteers, perhaps among other charities, we could resurrect it. A problem, though, is that St. Lawrence Market is expensive, it can’t compete with No Frills and other low-cost merchants, and if someone is already living on the edge of poverty it would seem improper to try to force them to subsist on a relatively expensive source of sustenance. It would be necessary to convince some low cost markets to accept the Toronto Dollar.
And finally, there would have to be some distinct benefit for merchants, other than altruism. If we were able to develop hordes of people using it, then it could bring them, like advertising, more business. After all, there is no end of Groupons, Wagjag etc. etc. promotions giving big discounts in the hope of attracting more customers.
Sorry I have run on so long. Anton Kuerti
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Marc – thanks for your thoughts & reflections. I expect most supporters would agree with what you are saying.
At the same time, I think it would be worthwhile to look for a way to keep the Toronto Dollar alive with the hope that others will come along in the future with new ideas and energy.
The way that St John’s Bakery used the Toronto Dollar filled two important gaps in our social system
1. Many individuals on OW or ODSP have difficulty surviving on their social assistance and the Toronto Dollar helped them earn some extra income to pay their basic monthly costs.
2. community groups cannot hire people unless they pay the minimum wage, so there is no alternative between asking someone to volunteer or pay the minimum wage. The Toronto Dollar has been a means to bridge this gap.
One idea to consider could be to have community businesses and/or community centres use the Toronto Dollar in a similar way that St John’s Bakery used it, and not have the 10% for now since that percentage goes in and out to the community centre/business. Each centre would manage its own pool of Toronto Dollars to keep the accounting simple. They could look for local businesses to accept the currency if they wanted but it would be up to each centre to arrange and manage that aspect. If the number of businesses were to grow, there would need to be some coordination, but that could be a later discussion. There would be a need to look at ways to raise funds for basic costs such as printing the money.
At 6 St Joseph House, we have about 200 volunteers, and Kim Curry, the ED for Seeds of Hope Foundation, thinks there could be interest in pursuing these ideas there.
The Hot House Café sees the Toronto Dollar as a marketing tool so I expect they would be okay to continue paying the 10% and these funds might be used for this purpose. The Toronto Dollar Supper Club could decide itself how it wants to use the 10% it generates.
I would be interested if others have ideas to ‘keep the Toronto Dollar alive’ or feedback on the ideas outlined above. David Walsh
While I was the manager of St. John’s Bakery, we used the Toronto Dollar to subvert the welfare system – it allowed the bakery to pay workers without them having their benefits clawed back (at the time 50 cents on every regular (ie Cdn) dollar earned was clawed back by the welfare system – not much of an incentive to work). It was very useful in this regard and was an important component in getting the bakery started and the bakery (and those early bakers) owe a debt of gratitude to Joy and to David Walsh for starting the Dollar and to Richard Hotta for faithfully administering it for many years.
As a board member, I saw firsthand the challenges of keeping the Dollar running on volunteer time and shoestring funding. I felt then and still feel that the all volunteer nature and the 10% discount being asked of merchants was not a formula for long term success. Altruism is a good kick starter but tough to rely on when the cause becomes, frankly, a bit of a grind. The value add for merchants was never that clear to them (with some exceptions, I would say) and there was an undercurrent of resentment at least with some of them. During my time on the board, Glen Allen did an exceptional (no, make that heroic) job of trying to build a more compelling case of value for the merchants – but it was built on the back mainly of his (mostly pro-bono) time and energy – and when it became too much, he left, and the energy drained away.
In spite of Glen’s efforts, and I should mention Jim Boyles who has steadfastly served the Toronto Dollar for many years, and also Tom Haubenreisser, very clever people all of them, the formula just wasn’t conducive to long term success.
The Toronto Dollar was a noble experiment – but it doesn’t work in it’s present format. Maybe a different model would work – but it needs to be based on a realistic formula that clearly aligns the interests of the merchants with those of the Dollar and provides an income stream to pay for a co-ordinator position. A tall order.
And that’s my two cents.
I have concerns about whether Toronto Dollar has anything left
– both logistically and directionally. We are finding it more and more
difficult to explain Toronto Dollar to the Supper Club audience right now
because Toronto Dollars has basically stopped operations.
The Supper Club Committee was present at the AGM and I voiced these
concerns, primarily that Toronto Dollars needs to clarify its purpose and
its direction before it can proceed.
My concern with a fundraiser is the question of where the funds would go?
I’m not sure money will help if there isn’t clear leadership and a clear
direction for Toronto Dollars. It still is a labour intensive program with
no plan at the moment of how to solve this. Perhaps it’s time for another
community-organized, community building program.
I’m a newcomer compared to most of you and really have no say in this at
all. However I am very committed to the Supper Club, as are the other
members of the SC Committee, and would like to see it proceed with a clear
purpose to build community spirit and provide some funds to local needy
groups.
I hope I haven’t offended you or anyone. Nancy Miller
The Toronto Dollar is/was a great act of imagination.
I can’t speak about it’s working up close and “tight”.
What I do know is that nothing is effective without the right people, who have TIME to devote and MONEY to use. Mary Jo Leddy
