Sunday, February 16, 2025

BMO refuses to meet local officials over Canso branch closure

MODG council seeking alternatives

  • January 29 2025
  • By Alec Bruce, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter    

GUYSBOROUGH — The Bank of Montreal (BMO) has declined to meet with members of the Municipality of the District of Guysborough (MODG) council following its decision earlier this month to close its Canso branch.

“The letter I received back [from BMO regional vice-president Deanne Chaulk] said they would not be coming to speak to council,” MODG Warden Paul Long reported to his colleagues at the regular meeting Jan. 22. “I don’t know if we are going to be able to accomplish anything through our letters.... How do you fight large corporate entities when they make their mind up?”

In the letter, which Long shared with The Journal on Jan. 26, Chaulk said, “While I understand the desire to further discuss BMO’s decision, I respectfully decline the invitation to appear before Council, as I do not have any further commentary beyond the notifications sent to our customers and public officials.”

She added: “BMO continuously assesses our operations – including our branch network – to adapt to changing circumstances. These decisions are not taken lightly and we are currently focused on assisting our customers as best as possible through the transition process. We recognize that challenges can come with a transition like this for some customers and we are providing support, including being available to educate customers on telephone banking for select everyday banking services and consultative advice needs as well as our comprehensive digital banking platform. These services complement our traditional branch offering that will be available to clients of our Branch in Canso at our New Glasgow Branch, or any other branch across our branch network.”

BMO announced Jan. 13 that it would be shuttering the Canso location this summer and relocating its operations there to New Glasgow, putting an end to roughly 60 years of continuous local service to the community and the surrounding area’s 800 residents.

The closure, scheduled for July 25, has triggered a public uproar from all walks of the community who say they were neither consulted nor given adequate notice of the change and worry that many residents aren’t equipped or comfortable with existing online banking options.

In a strongly worded letter to Chaulk on Jan. 15, Long stated that because the bank “rakes in billions of dollars in profits each year, our council believes that they have a corporate responsibility to the customers and staff in rural Canada, who helped build that corporation into what it is today.” Expecting residents to travel to New Glasgow, he added, is “outrageous” and expecting staff at the branch to relocate to keep their jobs is “untenable.”

In a press release the following day (Jan. 16), the MODG reported that it had passed a motion to send the letter to Chaulk requesting that she and other representatives of BMO meet with council at the “earliest opportunity.”

Chaulk did not respond to The Journal’s request for comment before press time this week, but at council last week, Long said the bank’s response was “a sad state of reality.” He noted that while “there have been some discussions trying to see if there are other alternatives for something to come in [to replace the branch],” East Coast Credit Union (ECCU), for one, has confirmed “they’re not able to do anything at this time.”

In an email to The Journal on Jan. 17, ECCU’s Senior Vice President, Member Experience and Strategy, Sally van de Wiel stated: “East Coast Credit Union has branches in Port Hawkesbury, Havre Boucher, Antigonish, and St. Andrews and are happy to support the community of Canso in the best way we can from these locations. We also have our virtual branch which is available to open new accounts, provide loans, mortgages and investments through telephone, email, online services and video appointments.”

She added: “While we are currently unable to consider opening a new location in Canso, we feel strongly that we can offer comprehensive financial services to your community members through our existing branches and virtual options.”

Another option, Long told council members last week, may be the Royal Bank [of Canada] in Guysborough town. “[Maybe] we should send a letter to [them] to see where they stand in light of this. Maybe there’s an opportunity to expand [their] hours here, instead of expecting people in Canso to drive to New Glasgow. This bank here [the Royal] is only open three days a week as it is. Maybe this might be an incentive to broaden their hours.”

Ultimately, he said, “We’ll continue to do what we can do to try to find a solution to the problem.... I guess the only saving grace is that we have until July 25 to try to find [one]. We’ll keep hammering away, but I think we all know who we’re dealing with.”

In her letter to Long last week, Chaulk also advised that “if council members have constituents that want to discuss the specifics of their situation further, please encourage them to meet with branch staff at the earliest possible opportunity.”

Meanwhile, Guysborough-Tracadie MLA Greg Morrow has served notice that he will ask the Commissioner of the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada to require BMO to meet with members of the communities affected.

In his letter to Chaulk on Jan. 17, Morrow said the bank has a responsibility to “answer... questions and to hear directly from the people BMO is impacting. [This] unfortunate ... unacceptable ... terrible decision to close the branch in Canso shows a complete lack of loyalty to residents.”