Port Hawkesbury council will soon decide what the next steps will be after the Regional Vice President from the Bank of Montreal (BMO) declined a visit to the Town.
Earlier this month, clients received word from the bank, it would be closing its branches in Port Hawkesbury and Canso this summer.
Now, Mayor Brenda Chisholm-Beaton tells our newsroom, council will meet in two weeks to decide what direction they should take from here, but she’s unsure what that will look like.
“We’ll continue to have that conversation at our council table to see if there is anything else that council would like to take action on.”
Huge Impact
The closure is not only going to impact thousands of customers from the Town of Port Hawkesbury, but it will also affect the surrounding strait region.
Chisholm-Beaton says considering the closest branch will be in New Glasgow, customers will likely switch banks.
“I’m sure they [other financial institutions] will be pivoting to make it an easy transition for Bank of Montreal customers to be able to switch their accounts to the alternate branches.”
The other options include TD, RBC and the Credit Union.
However, Chisholm-Beaton says, it is still a big process.
“When people have anything from online banking and bill payments, payments for income tax…and especially on the business side of things like payroll. I mean it’s not small to just pick up and go to another branch.”
Bad timing
Chisholm-Beaton says she is disappointed by this move from BMO and thought the timing was off considering the growth the Town has seen.
Not only in Port Hawkesbury but in Cape Breton, as well.
In her letter to Chaulk she called the closure a “major loss”.
Canso also turned down
Although the loss of BMO in Port Hawkesbury is significant, Canso is also reeling from the news of the upcoming closure.
BMO is the only bank in Canso, and to salvage the financial institution, Warden Paul Long fron the Municipality of the District of Guysborough, requested a sit-down meeting with Chaulk and that was also denied.
The branch is set to close July 28, with in-person services available in New Glasgow.
