The federal government and Royal Canadian Mint spent about $56,000 to have Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stamp the final Canadian penny produced for circulation during a news conference in May at the Mint in Winnipeg, new documents and data show.
The Conservative government announced in the March federal budget it was ending production of the penny because it actually cost 1.6 cents to mint each of the one-cent coins, due to rising metal, labour and other manufacturing costs.
Information obtained by Postmedia News, including documents issued under access to information, shows stamping the final penny at a news conference ultimately cost around 5.6 million times the coin's monetary value.
Flaherty and his director of communications spent the sum of 663,500 pennies ($6,635) on flights, accommodation, meals and incidentals for a one-day trip to the Mint's production facility in Winnipeg for the ceremonial final coin stamp on May 4, 2012, according to the documents.
The Royal Canadian Mint, a federal for-profit Crown Corporation, spent the equivalent of approximately five million pennies ($50,000) to host the event, which drew significant media attention and public interest; the cost included flying in Mint CEO Ian Bennett, who is based out of Ottawa.
The final tab for Finance Canada, which was routine by government travel standards, includes the sum of about 582,900 pennies ($5,829) spent on business- and economy-class flights aboard Air Canada for Flaherty and economy class airfare for his communications director.
Another $537 was spent on hotel rooms for the minister and his aide at the Fairmont Winnipeg, while about $269 was billed for ground transportation, meals and incidentals.
The Mint didn't provide a specific breakdown of its $50,000 in expenses, although it included media outreach, logistics, audio/visual equipment and minimal travel, said Mint spokesperson Christine Aquino.
She argued the Mint's spending on the event didn't cost taxpayers a penny because the Crown Corporation generates its own profits by producing coins for more than a dozen countries as well as collector coins.
The Mint made $43.8 million in pre-tax profits last year and paid a dividend of $10 million to its shareholder, the federal government. The remaining profits went back into the Mint's operations.
Along with the rising costs to stamp the penny coin, the government said ending the penny's production was necessary because Canadians are indifferent to the coin and that it has retained only one-twentieth of its original purchasing power.
Ottawa argues that stamping out the penny for good also will save taxpayers around $11 million a year.
"For the past several years, Canadian taxpayers have been burdened by the rising cost of producing pennies," Flaherty said in May.
"While the penny can still be used in day-to-day transactions, our government is encouraging Canadians to donate their pennies to charities in order to make a difference in their communities."
The last penny struck for Canadian circulation now sits at the Currency Museum of the Bank of Canada in Ottawa.
Other nations have either ceased to produce or have removed low-denomination coins, including Australia, Brazil, Finland, Israel, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and Britain.
But billions of Canadian penny coins remain either in circulation, stashed in piggy banks or lining drawers of homes across the country. It will take years to completely remove the coin from circulation.
Over the past five years, some 7,000 tonnes of pennies were produced and distributed annually from the Mint's plant in Winnipeg.
Original Article
Source: vancouver sun
Author: Jason Fekete
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