Councillor says currency is on the money

Powell River City Council was considering a motion to reject acceptance of Powell River Dollars but one councillor said the currency makes sense.

At the Thursday, July 16 council meeting, councillors were to vote on a recommendation that the city not utilize Powell River Dollars. Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said, however, that since the matter had been discussed at the city’s finance committee meeting, Thursday, June 25, she had exchanged email with Kevin Wilson, one of the proponents, about Powell River Dollars. She said she had received clarification about how the program could be implemented easily.

“I want to take this back to the committee of the whole because I want to discuss it further,” she said. “I got some information and I want to spend some time on this. It really could be a lot simpler than we’ve made it out to be.”

Mayor Dave Formosa said he would never want something to not go back for further discussion so he supports Leishman suggestion. He said he cautions council, knowing that as much as the city’s chief financial officer supports the Powell River Dollars program, there is concern about what implementation of the program would cost the city to set up and to handle this local currency.

“I’ve been a big supporter,” Formosa said. “I was one of the first to support it with my businesses, but at the same time, I have to do what I feel is right regarding the costs and anxieties I think it would bring the department.”

Council will send the matter back to the committee of the whole for further consideration.

Powell River Money Society presented the Powell River Dollar (PR$) program to the December 18, 2014 committee of the whole and city staff members were directed to prepare a report regarding the city utilizing the Powell River Dollar program.

According to a report from Shehzad Somji, the city’s chief financial officer, the Powell River Money Society website describes the Powell River Dollar as a local complementary currency that works alongside Canadian dollars. It can only be spent in Powell River, so it circulates in town instead of leaking out. It consists of online accounts and paper currency.

Somji said the real costs of implementing this program are the additional staff time required to track and reconcile the PR$ as the city will need to treat this as another bank account. There will also be additional time required by accounts payable to determine what each supplier’s PR$ valuation is and then making sure the city has enough PR$, which will then need to be documented and inserted with the cheque for payment. The additional time required is unknown, which makes it difficult to quantify.