A change to our change is causing some serious problems across the country. The Royal Canadian Mint is changing the metallic composition of some of their loonies and toonies this year and that means some parking meters and vending machines will no longer recognize them.

Public Works Manager Duane Grado says they are scrambling to make the appropriate changes. "The loonie and toonie that are being made by the Canadian Mint will be in production by the last week of March and every city in Saskatchewan has been dealt the problem that the coins won't be recognized by your meters."

With the coins coming into circulation in about two months, the problem is that it could take a month and a half to do the necessary changes. With nearly all cities in the country dealing with the same problem, cities are scrambling to access the appropriate parts and programs to update their parking meters and it's all happening at the exact same time.

The other problem is that the upgrades will use all of the funding set aside for allowing swipe cards to be used in Moose Jaw.  The rechargeable cards are set to come on line this year but only downtown for the time being.