By Diane Campbell
Despite the protests of irate customers, yet another bank has closed its doors, leaving local businesses and faithful customers feeling betrayed.
The Scotiabank at 434 Bank St. closed in September, merging its services with the branch at 186 Bank St. The CIBC and Bank of Montreal branches on Cooper Street, the Royal Bank formerly at Bank Street and Somerset Avenue, and the Women’s Credit Union on Laurier Avenue have all closed and merged with other branches since 1997.
“It all fell on deaf ears,” says Loraine Redford, a Scotiabank customer for 19 years. “Shouldn’t people matter? It just makes me angry.”
When the Scotiabank announced in May its intent to close the branch, the Centretown Action Committee got involved to help keep the 90-year-old bank open.
But their efforts — including a 3,000-signature petition, three rallies, and letters to Scotiabank chairman and CEO Peter Godsoe and Prime Minister Jean Chretien — proved fruitless.
Shannon-Lee Mannion, an area resident and longtime Scotiabank customer, helped garner support to keep the branch open. She says the community didn’t buy Scotiabank’s claim that the bank didn’t get enough business and worries about the impact on the community.
“Now that the bank’s closed, there’s no anchor in the community. We’ve been left to drift,” says Mannion.
Gerry LePage, chair of the Bank Street Promenade Business Improvement Area, says that despite the community’s efforts, there was little hope of saving the branch.
“(The bank closure) is a loss to the street,” LePage says, “but unfortunately, any collective group of people simply cannot exercise the right to tell businesses how to run their operations.”
Karen Jodoin of Scotiabank’s Ottawa and East vice-president’s office, says the Bank and Gladstone branch closed because the location wasn’t practical. She adds that the newly-renovated branch at 186 Bank St., “has a myriad of services not available at Bank and Gladstone.”
Redford and Mannion both say that the businesses will suffer because of the loss of customers that the bank attracted.
They also say that, in the move, the employees at the Bank Street and Gladstone Avenue branch may lose their jobs.
LePage disagrees. He says business could easily move into the location and start generating more business again.
“If you look at Elgin Street and the Byward Market,” LePage said, “you see this cluster of coffee shops, bars and restaurants, which has brought in other business.”
LePage points to success stories like the Second Cup on Somerset Avenue, and Cafe Supreme on Cooper Street, as examples of former bank locations which have made successful transitions.
As for the fear of staff layoffs, Jodoin says that Bank and Gladstone employees are currently working at Bank and Gloucester.
Elias Issa, co-owner of Paul’s Place on Bank St., says he not concerned about losing his regular customers, but he does worry how some residents will adjust to the closure.
“In a rural area, you can afford to have only one bank, but not in the city. There are sick people, old people, disabled people . . . they can’t afford to take taxis down eight or 10 blocks,” says Issa.
Jodoin says that Scotiabank has spoken with every customer at the defunct branch and has offered alternatives, including moving their accounts to other branches, “if that was more conducive to their needs.”
Mannion says she wishes things were different, and she hasn’t given up the fight to keep other bank branches from closing.
The Centretown Action Committee is now helping people in Westboro strategize on how to keep their CIBC branch, slated to close in December, open.
“We may have lost the battle, but we haven’t lost the war,” says Mannion.