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Trade your zucchini loaf for my jar of tomatoes? Why some Canadians are turning to bartering again

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2 months ago

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When Samantha Fanning was expecting her second child, the room that would become the baby’s nursery needed a major glow-up.

But as a professional photographer and at the time a single mother, Fanning didn’t have room in her schedule — or the painting skills required — to transform the space.

“So I traded photography for someone to come in and paint that bedroom,” Fanning told Cost of Living. Her painter got some nice new family photos.

After that, she was hooked on bartering, or the exchange of goods and services without cash.

A dark brown wood crib is seen in a baby's nursery.
When Fanning didn’t have the budget to paint Gunner’s nursery — or the painting skills to do it herself — the professional photographer provided a family photo shoot to a painter in exchange for doing the job. (Submitted by Samantha Fanning)

A friend cut and coloured Fanning’s hair in return for a photo shoot.

“One time I did eyelash extensions,” she said. “That’s something I would never have had money to go and do if not for trading.”

Given she also didn’t have health benefits back then, it was “invaluable” when she was able to trade photography for massage therapy, said Fanning, who lives in Cochrane, Alta.

Although bartering’s roots reach back to ancient times, long before cash and cryptocurrencies, some Canadians are returning to the practice, especially as they grapple with an affordability crisis.

It’s happening informally, through local Facebook groups and other grassroots efforts and through the creation of tech platforms that facilitate trades.

The ‘informal economy’

Robert Nason, associate professor at McGill University’s Desautels Faculty of Management, said the development isn’t surprising.

“In some ways, some parts of our economy have become overly financialized. We need to put a number on everything. And I think this movement is a bit of a reaction against that.”

While the value of goods and services exchanged this way is not known — nobody keeps track every time a couple of neighbours trade a zucchini loaf for a jar of tomatoes — bartering is considered part of the wider informal economy, said Nason.

A man wearing a pale blue shirt with buttoned-down collar stands with his hands in his pockets while posing for a portrait.
Robert Nason is an associate professor at McGill’s Desautels Faculty of Management who studies the informal economy. He said it’s not surprising people are turning to bartering as a trend away from what he calls an economy that’s become ‘overly financialized.’ (David Ward)

Economists can make educated estimates of what portion of a country’s gross domestic product (GDP) is represented by the informal economy, he said.

In lower-income countries where more people live a subsistence lifestyle — trading things they’ve grown or made, or selling them at local markets, for example — the informal economy represents a bigger piece of the pie.

“I do research in South Africa, for instance, and the informal economy represents something like 30 per cent of GDP,” he said.

Here in Canada, Statistics Canada pegs that number at around 2.8 per cent of GDP, said Nason.

Those percentages encapsulate not just bartering, but everything that’s believed to escape the tax collector’s attention, from restaurant cash tips to babysitting fees to backyard decks paid for under the table — and even organized crime.

According to the Canada Revenue Agency, though, the value of bartered goods and services should still be included in your income, and if you’re a business that collects sales taxes, those transactions could have “implications” for those submissions, as well.

Grassroots efforts

In Nova Scotia, the community organization Life School House hosts “maker swaps,” like the ones in Antigonish that Christine Villeneff attends.

“So we bring things that we’ve made at home,” said Villeneff, who takes the plants she has propagated at home as well as things she’s crocheted.

A woman smiles while she stands in a spacious garden next to some tomato plants in tomato cages.
Christine Villeneff, an avid gardener, likes to barter plants that she’s grown, as well as items she has crocheted. (Andrea Gawlina)

Everyone puts their items on a table, introduces themselves and explains what they’ve made, she said. There’s no formal way of assigning value or assessing a fair trade.

“We do a few rounds around the table, and you take what you feel is a good trade for what you contributed,” said Villeneff.

Jennifer DeCoste, who co-founded Life School House in 2018, said the grassroots organization has five Nova Scotia locations and is expanding nationally this summer with five new community groups launching in Ontario, Alberta and B.C.

A barter network for businesses

The bartering trend has caught the attention of some tech entrepreneurs, as well, including John Porter, who founded a platform for small businesses called BarterPay in 2018.

“We all know that bartering is the oldest form of commerce, but for two businesses to enter into a fair trade, each side would have to want what the other person has at the same time and at the same value. And so that often doesn’t line up,” said Porter, who is based in Stoney Creek, Ont.

A man dressed in jeans and black leather jacket smiles for a portrait while leaning against a stone building.
John Porter is the founder of BarterPay, a platform that facilitates barter transactions for small Canadian businesses. (Estelle Vanderheide)

Through BarterPay, which has locations in most Canadian provinces, businesses can offer up everything from merchandise to their unbooked hours, providing services ranging from accounting to printing signs.

Those generate “barter credits” that are equal to $1 each for accounting and tax purposes, said Porter.

“Then … they can take that newly earned revenue stream of barter credits that never expire, and they can go and barter and trade with anybody in the entire network.”

Conflicting goals

However, it hasn’t always gone smoothly when people try to shape bartering into larger, more formal — and tech-savvy — businesses.

Bunz Trading Zone started in 2013 as a Toronto-based network of Facebook bartering groups. When it later became a tech startup with its own platform and digital currency, it was subject to intense criticism. It eventually laid off 15 employees and scaled back its virtual currency ambitions.

“There are serious tensions between community bartering goals, and the growth and profit goals of companies that try to popularize this model,” said Nason.

“You have organizational goals that are around building community, and in many ways, fostering an alternative to the traditional finance and commercial structures. So when you have for-profit tech companies oriented around commercial growth, this comes into a rather fundamental conflict with those idealistic ambitions.”

As for Samantha Fanning in Cochrane, although she’s no longer a single mother, she still uses trading as a way to save money — especially since she and her husband now have four children to provide for.

They recently did a basement renovation, which included a splurge on some nice wallpaper.

“I was able to help someone with their social media accounts … and I was able to get that wallpaper installed.”

 

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Economy

B.C.’s debt and deficit forecast to rise as the provincial election nears

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2 days ago

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September 10, 2024

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VICTORIA – British Columbia is forecasting a record budget deficit and a rising debt of almost $129 billion less than two weeks before the start of a provincial election campaign where economic stability and future progress are expected to be major issues.

Finance Minister Katrine Conroy, who has announced her retirement and will not seek re-election in the Oct. 19 vote, said Tuesday her final budget update as minister predicts a deficit of $8.9 billion, up $1.1 billion from a forecast she made earlier this year.

Conroy said she acknowledges “challenges” facing B.C., including three consecutive deficit budgets, but expected improved economic growth where the province will start to “turn a corner.”

The $8.9 billion deficit forecast for 2024-2025 is followed by annual deficit projections of $6.7 billion and $6.1 billion in 2026-2027, Conroy said at a news conference outlining the government’s first quarterly financial update.

Conroy said lower corporate income tax and natural resource revenues and the increased cost of fighting wildfires have had some of the largest impacts on the budget.

“I want to acknowledge the economic uncertainties,” she said. “While global inflation is showing signs of easing and we’ve seen cuts to the Bank of Canada interest rates, we know that the challenges are not over.”

Conroy said wildfire response costs are expected to total $886 million this year, more than $650 million higher than originally forecast.

Corporate income tax revenue is forecast to be $638 million lower as a result of federal government updates and natural resource revenues are down $299 million due to lower prices for natural gas, lumber and electricity, she said.

Debt-servicing costs are also forecast to be $344 million higher due to the larger debt balance, the current interest rate and accelerated borrowing to ensure services and capital projects are maintained through the province’s election period, said Conroy.

B.C.’s economic growth is expected to strengthen over the next three years, but the timing of a return to a balanced budget will fall to another minister, said Conroy, who was addressing what likely would be her last news conference as Minister of Finance.

The election is expected to be called on Sept. 21, with the vote set for Oct. 19.

“While we are a strong province, people are facing challenges,” she said. “We have never shied away from taking those challenges head on, because we want to keep British Columbians secure and help them build good lives now and for the long term. With the investments we’re making and the actions we’re taking to support people and build a stronger economy, we’ve started to turn a corner.”

Premier David Eby said before the fiscal forecast was released Tuesday that the New Democrat government remains committed to providing services and supports for people in British Columbia and cuts are not on his agenda.

Eby said people have been hurt by high interest costs and the province is facing budget pressures connected to low resource prices, high wildfire costs and struggling global economies.

The premier said that now is not the time to reduce supports and services for people.

Last month’s year-end report for the 2023-2024 budget saw the province post a budget deficit of $5.035 billion, down from the previous forecast of $5.9 billion.

Eby said he expects government financial priorities to become a major issue during the upcoming election, with the NDP pledging to continue to fund services and the B.C. Conservatives looking to make cuts.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. A previous version said the debt would be going up to more than $129 billion. In fact, it will be almost $129 billion.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Economy

Mark Carney mum on carbon-tax advice, future in politics at Liberal retreat

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3 days ago

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September 10, 2024

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NANAIMO, B.C. – Former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he’ll be advising the Liberal party to flip some the challenges posed by an increasingly divided and dangerous world into an economic opportunity for Canada.

But he won’t say what his specific advice will be on economic issues that are politically divisive in Canada, like the carbon tax.

He presented his vision for the Liberals’ economic policy at the party’s caucus retreat in Nanaimo, B.C. today, after he agreed to help the party prepare for the next election as chair of a Liberal task force on economic growth.

Carney has been touted as a possible leadership contender to replace Justin Trudeau, who has said he has tried to coax Carney into politics for years.

Carney says if the prime minister asks him to do something he will do it to the best of his ability, but won’t elaborate on whether the new adviser role could lead to him adding his name to a ballot in the next election.

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says she has been taking advice from Carney for years, and that his new position won’t infringe on her role.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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Economy

Nova Scotia bill would kick-start offshore wind industry without approval from Ottawa

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3 days ago

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September 10, 2024

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HALIFAX – The Nova Scotia government has introduced a bill that would kick-start the province’s offshore wind industry without federal approval.

Natural Resources Minister Tory Rushton says amendments within a new omnibus bill introduced today will help ensure Nova Scotia meets its goal of launching a first call for offshore wind bids next year.

The province wants to offer project licences by 2030 to develop a total of five gigawatts of power from offshore wind.

Rushton says normally the province would wait for the federal government to adopt legislation establishing a wind industry off Canada’s East Coast, but that process has been “progressing slowly.”

Federal legislation that would enable the development of offshore wind farms in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador has passed through the first and second reading in the Senate, and is currently under consideration in committee.

Rushton says the Nova Scotia bill mirrors the federal legislation and would prevent the province’s offshore wind industry from being held up in Ottawa.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 10, 2024.

The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.

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