City of Powell River’s finance committee will be sending a staff recommendation to city council opposing the use of Powell River dollars as currency for city transactions.
At the finance committee’s Thursday, June 25, meeting, Shehzad Somji, the city’s chief financial officer, said the main impetus for local currency is to promote shopping locally and keeping money here. The city received a request to use the currency at a committee of the whole meeting in January of this year.
In outlining his report to the finance committee, Somji said the city paid more than 100 local suppliers in 2014 so the city is already committed to shopping locally.
“If we started using Powell River dollars, of those 100 suppliers, there are four that are participating in the Powell River dollars program,” Somji said.
Another option mentioned by the program’s advocates is using Powell River dollars in the city’s grant in aid program, providing money to non-profits and other agencies around town. Somji questioned how those groups could use Powell River dollars for projects they undertake.
“The administration of this is going to be a nightmare,” he said. “It’s really a separate currency altogether. You need a separate bank account for it.”
Somji said there would be “a fair bit” of added work taking Canadian dollars from one account and Powell River dollars from another to provide payment.
There is a similar local currency program in place in the Comox Valley and Somji said he called the municipalities of Courtenay, Comox and Cumberland to determine buy-in. None are using the local money.
Somji said it’s a good concept but shopping locally is already a behaviour the city is following. Consequently, in view of the fact that there is additional administrative work to adopting Powell River dollars, his recommendation is not to utilize the currency at this time.
Councillor Karen Skadsheim said she understands the complexity issue of the two currencies but she thinks it is important for the city to accept Powell River dollars as an example of supporting the local currency.
“I think with the city setting an example, it could help the currency along,” she said. “I recommend that we do accept it.”
Mayor Dave Formosa said as much as he’d like to set that example, he was one of the first people to sign up for Powell River dollars for his businesses and they have not been simple to use.
“To this day I don’t understand 100 per cent and I’ve had three or four presentations,” Formosa said. “I really, literally tried to ram it down the chamber of commerce’s throat. I had a hard time getting buy-in.”
Formosa said the Powell River dollars system is difficult to follow.
“I just wouldn’t want to do that to our staff,” he said. “I’d like to support it but I don’t see how it would flow in our system. There are not enough vendors. It’s been going on for about five years.”
Councillor CaroleAnn Leishman said a business or organization could be specific about how Powell River dollars are used. She said, for example, it could be specified that the city would accept 10 per cent Powell River dollars on dog licences and garbage tags.
“I suggest we look at this a little more closely,” she said.
She said city initiative may assist the Powell River dollars program to be more viable.
Mac Fraser, the city’s chief administrative officer, said there is equivalent complexity in administering one dollar, or $100,000, in Powell River dollars.
“It’s a mix of apples and oranges and the auditor might have a comment about it,” he said.
Councillor Rob Southcott said he has Powell River dollars at home and he believes in the basic idea but clearly there would be a cost to the city to institute acceptance and utilization of Powell River dollars.
Councillor Jim Palm said his experience with Powell River dollars is not a pleasant one and when the matter comes to city council he won’t support the use of them by the city.
The committee provided unanimous consent to send the recommendation to city council, where it can be further debated and decided.
