The Toronto Dollar, founded in December 1998, is a paper local currency used in Toronto, Ontario and backed by the Canadian dollar. The Family Life Foundation of Willowdale--a registered Canadian Charity--then chaired by the Rev. Lindsay G. King (Minister of Willowdale United Church) was one of the sponsors of the Toronto Dollar system. The Rev. King was present at the founding of the TD, at which the Toronto Mayor, Mel Lastman, bought the first Toronto Dollars.
The currency is administered by Toronto Dollar Community Projects Inc., a not-for-profit community group, and is a project of St. Lawrence Works.
The currency can be purchased by anyone at a number of locations at a 1-for-1 rate. Local businesses can agree to accept the currency at par with the Canadian dollar. Merchants are free to exchange Toronto dollars for Canadian dollars twice a month, at the rate of 90 cents to the dollar.
As of 2008, a little under 150 businesses accepted the Toronto dollar; most of these were in the St. Lawrence Market and at Gerrard Square.
Read more about Toronto Dollar: Charity and Poverty Reduction
Famous quotes containing the word dollar:
“I favor the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant. Economy is idealism in its most practical terms.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)