Endorsements

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, wearing a tetla t-shirt and holding up a tetla to show his support for the tetla project. (The poster on the wall behind him is not related to the Tetla Project.)
 

David Suzuki Endorsement:

I am blown away by Tetla. I believe this kind of initiative is at the cutting edge of where we all have to go, that is keeping our currency local, stressing the importance of culture, fighting the trend to homogenization. Congratulations and thank you.

Globalization has been a disaster because it has meant going to the lowest standard of worker care (that's what we saw in Bangladesh recently) and environmental concern (remember Union Carbide and Bhopal). Globalization has also been accompanied by monoculture, the spread of KFC, MacDonalds, Sony, Apple, Nike, etc. as the icons young people aspire to. It results in envy, self hatred, suicide, move to cities, etc. We should treasure diversity, it is the key to resilience as we encounter increasingly uncertain futures. The unit of survival in the future will be local communities and the more self sufficient and grounded they are, the stronger they will be. That's why I am very excited to learn about Tetla. I believe you are moving in the direction the rest of society has to follow.

David Suzuki

Business Owner Endorsements:

The Cabin 12 Restaurant let customers pay 100% with tetlas during our last year in business. It brought us $3,000 worth of business, nearly all of it from new customers. We used it all to pay for cleaning services and it worked out great for everybody.

Corey Judd, owner, Cabin 12 Restaurant

The customers at our restaurant can pay 100% with tetlas. This has brought us four or five hundred dollars worth of additional sales per month. All of it from new customers. We easily spend all of our tetlas on business expenses.

Neelu Grewal, owner, Turmeric Indian Cuisine

Economic Development Endorsement:

“On average, shopping at a non-locally owned business keeps only about $43 out of every $100 circulating in the local economy. Spending that $100 at a locally owned business can keep upwards of $73 in the local economy. This highlights the significance of supporting local entrepreneurs, innovators, and suppliers. Many communities take this to another level by creating local forms of currency. These currencies circulate locally and keep circulating inside the local economy without leaking out like regular money does. Regular money is still needed to buy things not produced locally, but innovative currency initiatives―like the Tetla Tsetsuwatil―should be encouraged, especially as the world adjusts to the post-Great Recession era.”

Dallas Gislason

Economic Development Officer

Greater Victoria Development Agency