Article content continued

Starting Monday, businesses are encouraged to begin rounding cash transactions to the nearest five-cent increment. So, a transaction totalling $1.02 would round down to $1, but a purchase of $1.03 would round up to $1.05, while $1.07 would round down to $1.05 and a purchase of $1.08 would round up to $1.10.

The rounding system after eliminating the nickel would be similar, Martin said. Total figures ending in one, two, three, four or five cents would round down, and those ending in six, seven, eight or nine cents would round up.

And, just as it applies to the penny’s elimination, only cash transactions would be affected, Martin said.

Ottawa says that stamping out the penny will save taxpayers around $11 million a year.

While the business case for killing the nickel isn’t quite as strong as it is for eliminating the penny, the nickel still does cost more to produce than it’s worth, Martin said.

And it would mean savings for the economy in terms of lost time and productivity – people would go through check-out lines faster, clerks would spend less time making change, and businesses wouldn’t have to deal with as much coinage, Martin said.

“If you’re a reasonable-sized business, you’re moving wheelbarrows full of nickels and pennies back and forth to the bank every month,” Martin said.

“It’s just a drain on the economy as well as an unnecessary cost to the mint.”

Re-jigging Canada’s currency to keep it current, relevant and economic is an argument Martin’s been making since 2008, when he first introduced a private member’s bill to get rid of the penny.

It’s been a surprisingly difficult sell, he said, but “now that the dust has settled on the penny,” it’s time to urge Minister of Finance Jim Flaherty to consider the nickel, Martin said.

“It shouldn’t be as tough as a slog now because the case has been made that life as we know it isn’t going to end if we eliminate the lowly penny,” Martin said.

nstechyson@postmedia.com