First the penny, now the nickel? A new poll suggests that a growing number of Canadians are ready to ditch the 5-cent coin.
A recent survey by Vancouver-based polling company Research Co. found that four-in-10 Canadians support the government retiring the nickel like it did the penny roughly seven years ago.
That’s four percentage points higher than when a similar survey was conducted in 2019, Research Co. said Tuesday (June 7).
Meanwhile, approximately one-in-10 Canadians are unsure if the nickel should be retired, while the remaining half surveyed say they want to keep it in circulation.
According to the 2022 survey data, less than one-in-five Canadians wish the government kept the penny. The government stopped distributing pennies in 2013 to save taxpayers an estimated $11 million a year, according to the Royal Canadian Mint.
The Research Co. surveys also suggests support for the government’s decision to stop circulating pennies has decreased from 75 per cent to 71 per cent since 2019.
Canadians who do not know if the government made the right decision to retire pennies rose by three percentage points during this time, while disagreement with penny de-circulation remained about the same from 2019 to 2022.
The government has not announced any plans to de-circulate the nickel at this time.
