A consumer group is urgently calling on the federal government to follow other jurisdictions in the U.S and Europe and bring in legislation to stem the slide toward a cashless society. Only 10 per cent of transactions in Canada today are done using cash, according to Carlos Castiblanco, an economist with the group Option Consommateurs. There is a need to protect cash right now before more merchants start refusing [it], Castiblanco recently told CBC Radio’s Ontario Today.