Your answer says volumes about your faith in the two choices.
Decline of the Toronto Dollar
After a whispered consultation with her boss, the teller at the CIBC at 1 Toronto St. holds up a small key and pulls a plastic padlocked box from beneath the counter.
Flummoxed by the request for "Toronto Dollars," she's learned what she needs to know.
"This is all we have left," she says nicely, plunking down the box. "Once they're sold, we're not getting anymore."
She counts out eight crisp, blue $10 bills and four pink $5 bills, depicting St. Lawrence Market in 1850. She takes $100 Canadian in return.
If the promise holds true, her customer will be able to spend the pink and blue paper and $10 will end up in the hands of charitable organizations. It seems thrilling – a way to add virtue to a vice.
That was part of the appeal in 1998 when Toronto Dollars were launched by civic-minded citizens.
"We had expected that by now it would have taken off," says Jorge Carvalho, manager of the St. Lawrence Market.
"It hasn't worked like we would have liked."
Despite efforts by the founders, volunteers and merchants – most in St. Lawrence Market – the idea has failed to find strong footing. Toronto Dollar Inc. has raised $94,000 for community groups.
Sales were terrible last year, but have picked up, says Richard Hotta, a self-employed accountant and treasurer of Toronto Dollar Inc. It yielded only $4,000 for charity.
"It's not as rewarding as it should be for the time we put in," he says.
Joy Kogawa is even more disappointed. An award-winning author of Obasan – based on her family's experience in a Japanese-Canadian internment camp during World War II – Kogawa put down her pen to breathe life into the Toronto Dollars project. She feels now, at 73, that she has failed.
"I can't say this has been of enough use to make a difference in many lives," says Kogawa, a Member of the Order of Canada.
Toronto Dollar Inc. is not the only local currency to hit hard times. In the 1990s, more than 80 local currencies were begun in the U.S., says Paul Glover, founder of Ithaca Hours, a local currency still in use in Ithaca, N.Y. Today probably only a dozen remain, as managing a currency is a full-time job, he says.
As long as one or more volunteers are willing to work full-time, local currencies prosper. But if they burn out or step down, the currencies tend to fall with them.
Stephen Burke, president of the Ithaca Hours board, believes local currencies are about to catch on.
"Local is the new organic," he says.
The town of Great Barrington, Mass., is enjoying huge success with BerkShares, a local currency launched last year. With 178,000 BerkShares in circulation, the project receives private funding. The successful Calgary Dollar, funded by United Way and the City of Calgary, has five paid staff.
One problem is that 10 per cent is a big hit for businesses that redeem Toronto Dollars, especially those run on a small margin, like food markets, says Carvalho.
In St. Lawrence Market, where merchants have supported the dollar for 10 years, interest seems to be waning. Twice a month, businesses can redeem Toronto Dollars at par – the 10 per cent covered by their advertising fund.
"I think it's dying," says Sara Lee Spector, owner of EveryDay Gourmet Coffee Roasters. "I don't think people understand how they work."
"I can't remember the last time I saw one," says Nesrin Akdemir, of Anything Goes. "I'm a bit skeptical of the whole thing. They're things that can be easily photocopied."
Kogawa is tired, Hotta is overworked, Carvalho feels change is needed. But no one wants to let the idea die – they are investigating replacing the dollars with a card that would debit a smaller percentage of a sale each time it is used.
"I'm exhausted, but I can't give up," says Kogawa
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