Tackling the Negative Implications of a Less-Cash Society | CBC News
June 30, 2024 | The digital brigade, powered by e-transfers, PayPal and Apple Pay, has gained unprecedented momentum. This is leading towards a cashless society, as Canadians tend to embrace electronic methods of payments. However, cash holds many significance in the social and economic realm. CBC News featured one of our MPP alum, Aftab Ahmed for their news article about the harm of leaping towards the cashless Canadian economy.
Ahmed, described who would be most affected by a world with no cash in a recent article in Policy Options, the online magazine for the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP).
"For many — such as Indigenous peoples, unhoused individuals, older Canadians, victims of domestic abuse, and others who are vulnerable — cash is a beacon of economic security, a source of financial autonomy, an emergency lifeline, and an emblem of cultural traditions," Ahmed wrote.
"Canada must avoid sleepwalking into a cashless future and instead recognize the risk of exacerbating financial exclusion of those most vulnerable."
