The Saugeen Trading Community is a regionally based monetary system located in the Grey & Bruce County region of Ontario.
The STC endeavours to meet economic and social needs of the local community by providing a vehicle for the exchange of labour and goods.
We promote self-reliance, community, responsibility, local autonomy and ecological sustainability. We support the spirit of cooperation and celebrate the diversity and abundance of skills and resources we have to offer each other.
The STC has approximately 120 members trading a diversity of products and services.
You can be a member of the Saugeen Trading Community for an annual membership fee of $15.00.
The Saugeen Trading Community trades in Saubucks, and sometimes in combination with federal dollars. Members' trades & balances in Saubucks are recorded in a database.
A SauBuck has the same value as a Canadian dollar, but no bills or notes are issued. Instead, transfers between members’ accounts occur whenever a transaction takes place. In this way, SauBucks constantly move from one account to another, never leaving the local community, always providing a source of income to the members involved in trading, while reinforcing our mutual interdependence.
Using SauBucks encourages local entrepreneurship and local jobs. And, even though no interest is charged, membership does represent both a commitment to the community and a legal obligation.
Joanne has a truck for hire and Kevin is a carpenter. Kevin would like to borrow the truck but doesn’t have enough cash. Joanne doesn’t need any carpentry, so a direct barter exchange between them need not occur because Joanne and Kevin are both members of the S.T.C.
What now happens is that Kevin and Joanne strike a deal - $100 for the use of the truck for one week. Kevin then arranges to have $100 in SauBucks transferred from his account to Joanne’s account.
Since all S.T.C. accounts start at zero, if this transaction were the first for Joanne and Kevin, Kevin’s account would now stand at $-100 SB and Joanne’s at $+100 SB.