Toronto Star (Greater Toronto Section)

April 13th, 2003

A dollar spent is a dollar earned
St. Lawrence merchants pass cash on to charity
Organizers want program to go citywide
By Barbara Turnbull

And for some reason, the St. Lawrence neighbourhood has been repeatedly sparking great ideas, ever since the Town of York's first City Hall was built 200 years ago on the corner of today's Front and Jarvis Sts.

It is now a grand neighbourhood, known around the world for its mix of high-density and low-rise buildings and a mix of people ranging from executives pulling in seven-figure incomes to people on social assistance.

St. Lawrence also has the distinction of running the city's first and only alternative currency, Toronto Dollars (). A handful of neighbourhood residents came up with the idea of paper money, backed and used like regular money, legal, taxable, printed by the same company that prints Canadian bills, even using similar anti-counterfeiting measures. The Toronto Dollar Community Project Inc. launched the currency in 1998.

Alternative currency programs exist all over the world and some, such as New York's Ithaca Hours, have proven extremely successful. But Toronto Dollars are thought to be the first to incorporate charity.

Shoppers exchange regular dollars at par with Toronto Dollars, and use them to shop at any of the 200 stores, restaurants and services in the St. Lawrence area that accept them, as well as at Gerrard Square in Riverdale.

Ten cents from every dollar go to job creation and community projects. That money comes from participating merchants, who contribute a 10 per cent "dividend" every time they turn in a Toronto Dollar for Canadian cash. Since the program's inception, about $400,000 in Toronto money has gone into circulation, meaning $40,000 has gone to a variety of projects: youth and homeless programs, grants to church groups, food and clothing.

The project works in St. Lawrence, a neighbourhood that has been particularly cohesive for years. In the early 1980s, residents formed the first neighbourhood association to fight for a community centre. Recently, they banded together again to fight a proposed high-rise condo development at St. James' Cathedral.

The Toronto Dollar is a similar attempt to keep the community strong, though the program has challenges. It's labour-intensive, requiring many people to sell the dollars, count the paper money and keep in touch with the merchants who accept them. A recent grant provided money to hire an executive director for two years, after which it is hoped the program will be self-sustaining; dedicated volunteers are the only reason it has functioned till now.

"To show that interest in others is as important as interest to oneself is a hard sell, especially when people are kind of frantic and trying to make their own ends meet," admits program founder Joy Kogawa.

But the program has many supporters, people devoted to the neighbourhood and, by extension, the idea that by simply shopping with a different form of money, an individual can make a difference.

"We're very lucky here," says Andrew Laffey, who runs the Hot House Cafe at the corner of Front and Church Sts. Noting that he just renegotiated a 20-year lease, Laffey says, "I try to be as generous as possible to the community, and I like the idea that 10 per cent of every dollar goes to worthy causes in the community."

"Painless" is how Jorge Carvalho, manager of the St. Lawrence Market, refers to the Toronto Dollar program. "By participating in this, we are encouraging customers to visit our stores, spend money in our stores and contribute to community projects," he says. "It's wonderful to see a community that works as well as this one does."

Now, the project's managers would like to go citywide. In fact, Susan Bellan, owner of Timbuktu on Front St. E. for 22 years, thinks a widely adopted Toronto Dollar program could solve some of the city's financial woes.

If just four per cent of Torontonians bought and used $100 of the currency each month, it would generate $15 million in extra revenue every year for the city, she says. The project's goal is a citywide program involving local government, which would accept part payment of property taxes and other government expenses in the currency.

After city council passed a motion calling for an investigation into the feasibility of that plan, the Toronto Dollars group met with city officials. But they're nowhere near a resolution.

"This is a good idea for Toronto," says Councillor Pam McConnell, whose district includes St. Lawrence. "It's not just a tool for economic development, but also for promoting volunteer participation and citizen action. It's a very empowering process."

McConnell says that, before the entire city can adopt the dollars, they need to become entrenched in other business districts, like simultaneous pilot projects. "Until business districts can see how it works, and until councillors see how it can work in their area, then it's very difficult to get them to commit," she says.

This is a chance for the city to rescue itself from money troubles that are not getting any better, organizers say. "It seems as though the province is not going to do very much and the federal government is doing pretty little as well," Bellan says. "We've got a resource at hand and we should use it. It's not meant to be some cute little project that sticks around St. Lawrence. It's meant to be city-wide."

"This is a wonderful neighbourhood because there are wonderful people in it," says Kogawa.

"I'm sure they exist in every community, but what happened here is they got together. When people like that get together, something happens. A little spark grows."

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April 6th, 2000.

Toronto Dollar Project: The buck started here
Scheme to aid the poor celebrates its success.
By Kali Pearson

Showing the money:
Celebrated author Joy Kogawa, who helped found the Toronto Dollar project, flashes some bills yesterday at the St. Lawrence Market Tonight, a party will be hail the project's success.

The merchants of St. Lawrence Market are opening their doors and donating their wares for the second annual Toronto Dollar party to celebrate the success of the new bills. The event, which runs tonight from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m., drew almost 3,000 people last year.

This year, it's being catered by George Brown College students and the music will be provided by a Georgian chior, several jazz groups and Taiko drummers.

Joy Kogawa, a local writer who is organizing the event, says it's a way of thanking the 120 merchants and organizations now involved with the Toronto Dollar project. Consumers buy Toronto Dollars at face value, getting a dollar's worth of merchandise for each note spent at participating St. Lawrence Market-area businesses.

From every Dollar, merchants contribute 10 cents to a fund that finances job creation as well as community and homeless projects. The Toronto Dollars are available in denominations of $1, $5, $10 and $20. Kogawa said $100,000 in Toronto Dollars was sold last year, which meant $10,000 was raised for groups and programs.

Kogawa says the sucess of the project shows "the community is capable of doing something to take care of those in economic need." People on social assistance can be paid in Toronto Dollars, which they can then exchange for goods and services they need. They are paid by the Toronto Dollar organization for work done, in Toronto Dollars, without having their assistance payments cut back.

Kogawa beamed at the program's success: "You can go to a dentist, you can get your carpet cleaned, you can buy clothes and food. Even Pizza Pizza joined recently."

CITY TV's Adam Vaughan will be master of ceremonies for the event, taking the place of his late father. "Colin Vaughan was a supporter of the Toronto Dollar, the market and of community groups, which is what the Toronto Dollar is all about," his son said.

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April 2nd, 1999

St. Lawrence Market to host party for city
By Barbara Turnbull

The St. Lawrence Market is throwing a party for the city.

For the first time in the market's 160 years, merchants, along with organizers of the city's new Toronto Dollar program, will play host to a party on Thursday. With free food, lots of entertainment and a silent auction, the Toronto Dollar Party will also serve as a fundraiser for community projects. Free invitations, required for admission to the evening bash, from 6:30 p.m. to 10 p.m., will be available starting tomorrow at the market.

The Toronto Dollar program works by having St. Lawrence Market customers buy special dollars, at par with real money, to spend at vendors' stalls.  Ten cents out of every Toronto Dollar purchased goes to a fund that finances job creation, as well as other projects that benefit the community.Last month, the Toronto Dollar group gave $1,000 to Out of the Cold, which helps homeless people find shelter in the winter.

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February 1st, 1999.

(Your Business Section)

Spend a dollar, donate a  dime
By Ellen Roseman

IMAGINE THAT whenever you bought something, 10 percent of the money was set aside and donated to charity.

Sounds like a classic win-win situation. You do good work in your community by going about the routine activities of daily life: shopping for groceries, eating in a restaurant, buying clothes, visiting the dentist.

That is the experiment under way in downtown Toronto. About 60 businesses, located in or near the St. Lawrence Market, have signed on to accept an alternative form of currency called Toronto Dollars.

Shoppers can exchange their dollars at par with Toronto Dollars, which come in denominations of $l, $5, $l0 and $20. Instead of the Queen, there's a scene of 1854 Toronto by painter Edwin Whitfield and photos of local landmarks.

Last Friday, the organizers gave out their first grant, handing $1,000 in local currency to the Metropolitan United Church's Out of the Cold program. It will be used to buy boots for homeless men so they can work at out door jobs.

"I haven't met anyone yet who doesn't say it's a good idea," says Joy Kogawa, a Toronto author who has given virtually all her time in the past year and a half to get the project off the ground.

Kogawa says that after finishing her most recent novel, The Rain Ascends, she started thinking about the growing gap between rich and poor. She saw money being channeled away from local needs, such as schools, hospitals and homeless shelters, to pay down the national debt.

Was there a way to give communities a voice and some measure of control? she wondered.

She began reading about alterative currencies, which have taken hold in many cities around the world.  There's a rich literature on this topic, catalogued on the Internet by the Institute for Economic Democracy.

Kogawa and a half-dozen others came up with the idea of paper money, backed and used like regular money, legal and taxable and printed by the same company that prints Canadian bills, using similar anti-counterfeiting measures.

On Dec. 5, the Toronto Dollar was launched with the blessing of Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman. It's also endorsed by economics professor Abraham Rotstein of the University of Toronto.

This is not funny money, Rotstein insists. "The fact that you can back up the Toronto Dollar with a 100 per cent reserve of money in the bank creates a very sound base."

Susan Bellan, owner of Frida Craft Stores on Front St. E., says she's happy to accept 90 cents on the dollar from customers who use the currency.  She sees it as away to stimulate local economic activity and boost her business.

One day, she hopes, retailers will be able to open Toronto dollar accounts at banks (similar to U.S. dollar accounts) and customers will get the fundraising benefits of Toronto Dollars while using a debit card.

"It would be easier if banks took us seriously," Kogawa acknowledges.  "We're working on it through the mayor's office."

Why not approach the banks . "How can they take us seriously when we're such a smidge at this point?" she asks "A smidge of hope, anyway."

At the St. Lawrence Market, almost all the stores take Toronto Dollars.  Participants also include restaurants (Harvey's, C'est What, Hothouse Cafe, Hungry Eyes, Natchos, Times Bar and Grill), a dentist (David Burman), an optician (Optic Zone), several wine-making stores and Goodwill Toronto on Adelaide St. E. Local newspapers take payment for ads in Toronto Dollars.

The group hopes to hire a publicist to raise its profile.

I think the idea has great Promise.  I bought my own Toronto Dollars last week, paying $36 to get one of each denomination.  I'll get around to spending them once I get over the fun of showing them off.

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January 20th, 1999

Customers buy 20,000 Toronto dollars
By Barbara Turnbull

A new local currency is out of the gate and running well, thanks to community support, says the head of the innovative Toronto project. In its first month, people have purchased $20,000 of the currency, putting $2,000 in a fund for charities and make-work projects, said Joy Kogawa. “It's gone a lot further, faster, than I could, have imagined,” said Kogawa, an award winning local author. Customers buy Toronto Dollars (at the St Lawrence Market or the Gooderham FlatIron building) at face value, getting a dollars worth of merchandise for each note spent with the dozens of participating merchants – all in the market area for now. Merchants contribute 10 cents from every dollar purchases to a fund that finances job creation as well as community and homeless projects. Organizers are planning an open house later this month, where they will give a $1,000 cheque to the Out-of-the-Cold program.

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November 7th, 1998.

Toronto Dollar aids market district
New currency helps homeless, small business
By Barbara Turnbull

In an age of sagging dollars and teetering economies, Toronto Dollars are not at all shy about being the new kid on the block.The brainchild of Toronto writer Joy Kogawa, Toronto Dollars will not only buy groceries and other goods, but shoppers who use them will also help the city's homeless.

A percentage of every dollar spent will also go into a fund that will underwrite small business start-ups. "This is a small thing that people can do which collectively would make a big difference to the community," said Kogawa, who developed the concept after researching similar programs around the world. The colourful new currency - in denominations of $1, $5, $10 and $20 - is due out later this month and will be available at both the St. Lawrence Market and in a nearby office in the Gooderham Flatiron building, on Front St. E.

Here's how it works:
- Consumers buy Toronto Dollars at face value, paying 100 cents on the dollar for each one.  In return, they get a dollar's worth of merchandise when they spend the city cash with participating merchants.
- Ten cents from every dollar purchased goes into the fund that finances job creation as well as community and homeless projects.  The money comes from participating merchants, who contribute a 10 per cent "dividend" every time they turn in Toronto Dollars for Canadian cash.
- The dollars are used just like regular cash at stores participating in the program.  For now, they're all in the St. Lawrence Market neighbourhood.

So far, 50 merchants have agreed to accept the new currency, and another 10 or so are signing up each week, said John Flanders, one of the organizers. Kogawa and Flanders will be at the market today, handing out flyers to shoppers about the program. Mayor Mel Lastman is already a supporter.

"I love the idea and I really want to see it work," Lastman said. If successful, the program could be expanded across the city, Kogawa said. Run entirely by volunteers, the initial costs were covered by a grant from a private individual.

The money was designed by a local graphic artist and is being printed by the same company that prints regular currency - with the same security features. Plans are to print between $70,000 and $100,000, which should last two years, Flanders said.

Key to the program's success is the support of the merchants, who will hopefully use the dollars themselves, said David Walsh, another organizer and local businessman. The organizers are working with other non-profit groups like Project Warmth and the Daily Bread Food Bank to maximize the project's potential. The dollars can also be donated directly to homeless people, who can only use them to purchase food and clothes but have the opportunity to choose what they want.

The program goes back to the original idea of trading goods and services, said organizer and participating merchant Susan Bellan, who owns Frida Craft Store on Front St. "You can't pile it up, you have to use it.  It's supposed to circulate," Bellan said. And, unlike other dollars that can be spent elsewhere, these can only be spent in Toronto. Ideally, each dollar is circulated several times a year, so it doesn't have to be continually printed. But, as the program expands, so does the supply.

"We're talking about creating a debt-free money supply within Toronto," Bellan said.