Tucked away under lock and key in a former railroad depot turned small-town museum in the U.S. state of Washington, a wooden printing press cranked back to life to mint currency after nearly 90 dormant years.
The end product: $25 US wooden bills bearing the town’s name — Tenino — with the words “COVID Relief” superimposed on the image of a bat and the Latin phrase “Habemus autem sub potestate” (We have it under control) printed in cursive.
With the coronavirus pandemic plunging the United States into a recession, decimating small businesses and causing job losses across the country, some local governments are looking for innovative ways to help residents weather the storm.
For Tenino, the answer was the revival of the local currency that had bolstered the town’s economy in 1931 in the wake of the Great Depression.
“It was kind of an epiphany: Why don’t we do that again?” Mayor Wayne Fournier told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “It only made sense.”
Tenino, a town of less than 2,000 people located about 95 kilometres southwest of Seattle, started printing the local banknotes in April, five weeks into Washington state’s lockdown.
$300 a month per person
Anyone with a documented loss of income as a result of the pandemic is eligible for up to $300 US a month of the local currency.
Businesses up and down the town’s quaint Main Street accept the wooden note for everything except alcohol, tobacco, cannabis and lottery tickets.
Tenino’s city government backs the local currency, which merchants can exchange for U.S. dollars at city hall at a 1:1 rate.
Local business owners can either reuse the bills themselves or trade them in at city hall for U.S. dollars, one for one. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press)
Susan Witt, executive director of the Schumacher Center for a New Economics, a Massachusetts-based think tank, said alternative currencies like Tenino’s banknote are better than direct cash payments at boosting local economies.
“The City of Barcelona gave donations (in 2017/18) to sports teams and cultural groups as well as social programs (then) watched these donations go to big box stores,” she said in emailed comments.
“So, it created a local currency so that these ‘discretionary’ funds in its budget would circle back to support locally-owned businesses.”
Old idea
Mayor Fournier noted that, for long-time Tenino residents, the wooden notes are nothing new.
The tiny town founded around a sandstone quarry achieved national prominence in 1931 when civic leaders printed a wooden local currency to restore consumer confidence after the town’s bank failed during the Great Depression.
“This is woven into the DNA of the community,” Fournier said. “My great aunt Erlene has the family collection all stashed away.”
The mayor brought the idea of resurrecting the town’s legacy project to the city council as a way to provide economic relief to businesses and residents suffering as a result of lockdown measures to slow the spread of COVID-19.
In April councilors approved the proposal to issue up to $10,000 in local scrip.
So far, 13 residents have successfully applied for the funds and some $2,500 worth of wooden bills have been issued, Fournier said, with donations upping the total funds available to $16,000.
The town prints the money on a printing press that dates from the 19th Century. (Ted S. Warren/Associated Press)
Fournier views the project as the kind of initiative towns and small cities must take upon themselves to survive the coronavirus outbreak amid what he views as an inadequate federal response.
He pointed out that the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), a fund of forgivable loans designed to keep businesses afloat through the pandemic, is not scaled for the businesses in Tenino that have just a handful of employees.
“A federal program dumps money from the top and these blue-chip companies steal it all,” Fournier said. “If we do it from the ground up, there’s no stealing. It’s a direct ballast to Main Street.”
From the outset, the unprecedented first-come-first-served program struggled with technology and paperwork problems that led some businesses to miss out while some affluent firms got funds they did not necessarily need.
“From mom-and-pop shops on Main Street to local employers who are anchors in our community, we have seen the PPP save millions of jobs and keep small firms moving forward,” said Jeremy Field, the regional administrator for the Small Business Administration, which oversees the program.
He noted in emailed comments that 86.5% of loans granted nationally were for less than $150,000 and that the program covered almost three-quarters of the small business payroll in Washington state.
‘Hacking the system’
Fournier said he has already fielded queries from towns across the country looking to emulate Tenino’s effort.
“What if 5,000 other small cities did that same thing and took it upon themselves to put $10,000 into Main Street?” he asked.
“That’s $50 million US directly into small businesses. It totally hacks the system.”
So far, however, Tenino’s currency does not appear to be circulating much among local businesses.
At the grocery and hardware store that anchors Main Street, manager Chris Hamilton said that by mid-June customers had spent $150 US in the local bills to buy necessities like groceries and a new faucet to replace a broken tap.
“I’ll redeem it for cash at city hall,” he said. “I hadn’t thought about recirculating it.”
Next door at Don Juan’s Mexican Kitchen, owner Juan Martinez Jr. has four of the wooden $25 notes sitting in his cash register.
In a case of history repeating, he said coin collectors have offered to buy the bills from him for double their value in U.S. dollars.
Back in the 1930s, coin collectors fueled a speculative rise in the value of the town’s wooden scrip, according to Washington state online encyclopedia HistoryLink.
50 local currencies currently in use
The Schumacher Center for a New Economics has documented more than 50 local alternative currencies globally that were active as of summer 2019.
They range from the artfully designed Brixton Pound in London, England, to the Mumbuca, which bankrolls the basic income scheme in Marica, Brazil.
The centre also sponsors BerkShares, a local currency that has been circulating in the Berkshire region of western Massachusetts for 14 years.
Witt cautions that notes backed by U.S. dollars are only a halfway measure, because the amount of local currency available is limited by the amount of federal dollars the town has on hand to exchange it with.
“A truly independent currency would allow for issuing currency as needed,” she said.
That “new” money would circulate through the local economy and then eventually go toward paying property taxes over the course of several years, she added.
But, for now, Witt said, Tenino’s project is an effective way to empower a community being brought to its knees by factors beyond its control.
“I don’t believe the good people of Tenino meant for their wooden (banknotes) to serve as a robust local currency,” she said.
“They are instead making an important point. COVID and the lack of federal response to the crisis has motivated municipalities to explore what could be done with their own currencies.”
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
