Councillor Rainer Bloess follows-up:

----Original Message-----
From: Bloess, Rainer <Rainer.Bloess@city.ottawa.on.ca>
To: Tom J. Kennedy <tom@cyberclass.net>
Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 4:05 PM
Subject: RE: Follow-up Letter To Mayor Bob Chiarelli & Councillors

Tom,

Thanks for the follow-up.

Looking at www.cyberclass.net/chiarelli.htm, I am looking forward to any meeting on LETS.

I must admit that having looked some more at the Calgary situation and it is not all that clear. I am curious how the TO experience is going as I am somewhat sceptical based on the overview which calls for exchanging C$ for TO$ with a 10% loss to the business.

Tom-Joseph:Kennedy otherwise known as "Tommy-No: Usury" responds to Councillor Rainer Bloess:

----Original Message-----
From: Tom J. Kennedy <tom@cyberclass.net>
To: Bloess, Rainer <Rainer.Bloess@city.ottawa.on.ca>
Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 7:24 PM
Subject: Re: Response to Follow-up Letter To Mayor Bob Chiarelli & Councillors

January 30, 2001

Greetings Rainer:

Thank you for acknowledging my communication. You are the first Councillor for the new city of Ottawa to respond. I appreciate you taking the time to respond for I understand the demands on your time. I like the "gif" of the Toronto Dollar. Nice touch !

I will contact the mayor and councillors at Calgary City Hall to get some updated details about how that particular project re: the Calgary Transit system accepting as payment for transit tickets "Bow Chinook Hours." is evolving.
I will share details when I receive them.

Whenever we launch a pilot project in the Ottawa area we can improve on the Toronto experience. John C. Turmel has explained that if projects using a "community currency" are set up optimally, the local "usury-free" community currency (let's call them Ottawa dollars for now) can be of equivalent value to federal dollars.

There is really no need to have the participating businesses incur a loss of 10% when they choose to accept Ottawa dollars in exchange for goods and/or services. There are ways to improve the implementation the concept of "usury-free" community currency at the municipal level of politics rather than copying the Toronto model.

I invite you (or if you cannot find the time - perhaps one of your staff) to review the information posted at the links in my original communication to the Mayor and the Coucillors of the City of Ottawa. I know that this concept is new and innovative for those people who are unaware of the power and potential of the LETS software. Therefore, we have to find the optimal ways to educate decision makers with background information.

I keep looking for and finding links to new information by those innovators who are quickly evolving the concept of the "complementary currency." Here are a some new links worthy of reveiw.

Complementary Money System by Frederick Mann: www.buildfreedom.com/economic/eco_5.html
Links to Resources on E-money and Digital Cash by Roy Davies: www.ex.ac.uk/~RDavies/arian/emoney.html
The "Usury-free" JAK Bank (in Sweden): www.cyberclass.net/jakbank.htm

Better Social Services Without Taxes by Per Almgren: www.cyberclass.net/almgrem.htm

Given the new composition of Ottawa Council, I would welcome your ideas and suggestions as the best way to proceed so that a LETS proposal gets the focus that it deserves as this critical time.

As I mentioned in my first communication, it would be possible for the Ottawa Council to arrange to have Paul Glover - the pioneer of "Ithaca Hours" in Ithaca, New York come to Ottawa to explain to Mayor Bob Chiarelli and the Ottawa Councillors how the concept of "usury-free" community currency has been benefitting Ithaca since it was initiated in 1991.

Paul Glover talked with me by telephone in November and he also indicated that it might be very beneficial for a group or committee from Ottawa to visit Ithaca for a couple for a couple of days. I estimate that it is a 5 hour drive from Ottawa to Ithaca.

More later...

Working with you for "peace and plenty" by 2020
Tom
www.cyberclass.net

PS: The Council of the Township of Russell, Ontario (a rural community, east of Ottawa) is likewise aware of the LETS concept and are likely to be discussing it in the future.