February 18, 2007 | In Miscellaneous, Politics |
A recent report on coin usage by the Desjardins Group, a Quebec-based economic think tank, has revived the debate on the future of Canada’s one-cent coin.
The study revealed that only 37% of Canadians regularly use pennies for purchases, while many others give them away, throw them in fountains, or let them pile up around the house. Because of this, and the fact that taxpayers spend around $130 million per year on minting new pennies, Desjardins analysts are recommending that Canada follow the lead of Australia and New Zealand and do away with the largely obsolete and insignificant coin.
The Bank of Canada, while not formally taking sides on the issue, released its own 3-page report this weekend saying that eliminating the penny wouldn’t increase inflation, and could even result in some prices going down. Merchants who now charge $9.99 for a product for example, might choose to cut their prices to $9.95.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who is a long-time coin collector, has also weighed in on this issue, admitting that while he has a “sentimental” attachment to the penny, he exchanges them for higher denominations at cash registers whenever possible.
Personally, I don’t think there’s any need for the Bank of Canada to aggressively remove the penny from circulation quite yet, but it certainly doesn’t make sense to keep minting 816,000,000 million new ones every year.
The government should start cutting back on the production of pennies and encouraging stores and customers to use nickels whenever possible. That way, we can begin a gradual transition away from the one-cent coin and see if anyone really misses it.
