A small Nova Scotia town is about to lose its only bank and ATM.
The East Coast Credit Union came to Mulgrave to replace the Royal Bank of Canada in September 1988. This past summer, bank officials announced the branch would close at the end of October and amalgamate with the branch in Port Hawkesbury.
Mulgrave Mayor Lorne MacDonald says the closure will be especially hard on seniors, who will be forced to leave town to do their banking.
“On perfect conditions, probably 20 minutes to get to the banking institutions in Port Hawkesbury, and this is the thing that people find the time difficult to do,” says MacDonald.
“It’s going to affect people, especially the seniors. We got no transit system. We did have the Strait area transit bus come over, but a lot of people didn’t use it and that went away and people just have a hard time just getting to the banking institutions.”
Ken Shea, the CEO of East Coast Credit Union, says he wishes the branch didn’t have to close, but says it doesn’t have enough members or business customers and has been losing money for years.
The move is the latest in a number of Credit Union closures in Nova Scotia. Customers in Mulgrave say losing the only bank and ATM in town is frustrating.
“There’s nothing going on. There’s no business, there’s no work, there’s nothing, and now they’re taking our bank away,” says customer Shirley MacDonald. “Next thing it will be the post office and the liquor store.”
“The town has their accounts there,” says MacDonald. “The fire department, the community, the legion, so that’s going to have a hardship, especially these volunteer organizations. They got to travel to Port Hawkesbury to do their banking and things like that.”
MacDonald remains hopeful a new bank may open in Mulgrave if a proposed container terminal project ever goes through.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
