Effective today, the federal government is phasing out the penny. Nova Scotians using cash to pay for government fees will be effected by the change.
"Losing the penny will be a transition for all Canadians," said Finance Minister Maureen MacDonald. "We are taking the same approach as many other provinces and business by following federal guidelines for rounding cash transactions."
The federal government issued rounding guidelines to address the end of the penny’s circulation. They are similar to Australian and New Zealand’s rounding schemes which were implemented after they eliminated their pennies.
The rounding guidelines are as follows:
- final amounts ending in .01 or .02 will be rounded down to .00
- final amounts ending in .03 or .04 will be rounded up to .05
- final amounts ending in .06 or .07 will be rounded down to .05
- final amounts ending in .08 or .09 will be rounded up to .10
If pennies are not available, Access Nova Scotia centres and all other government offices, will round up or down as well.
Rounding guidelines apply to cash transactions only. Electronic payments will continue to use exact amounts.
The penny will still be considered legal tender and will continue to be accepted for payment and offered as change, if available.
Future changes to government fees and charges will end in five-cent increments.
More information can be found at the Royal Canadian Mint’s website: www.mint.ca.
