Grand Manan Residents Fight Closure of Island's Only Bank

Hundreds of Grand Manan residents rallied outside The Bank of Nova Scotia's Grand Manan branch on Friday to protest the closure of the island's only bank, which has served the community for over 100 years.

Despite lucrative fishing and tourism industries on the island, earlier this year Scotiabank announced it would consolidate the Grand Manan branch with its St. George branch on August 24. That means island residents, of which there are about 2500, will soon have to make a 9-hour roundtrip, which includes the added expense of a ferry ride to the mainland, to do in-person banking.

"If you have young kids, that means to have to get a babysitter or take your kids out of school for the day just to do 15 minutes of banking," said Jenna Russell. "My vacation days are also very precious, and I will now have to use those to do something that should only take a matter of minutes."

While Scotiabank says it will assist in transitioning islanders to doing more online banking, the impact won't just hit seniors and the technologically challenged. Islanders fear new businesses won't open and existing ones could close if they are forced to lose a full day's operations simply to make a trip to the mainland to visit the bank.  

"This island is thriving right now," said Zach Badeau, "And I want to see it continue to thrive, but this bank closure will have a trickle-down effect with other businesses following suit and leaving if it is just too difficult to run a business here."

Local businesses also fear that having to keep large amounts of money on their premises will make them bigger targets for theft. 

Grand Manan Mayor Bonnie Morse says Scotiabank isn't necessarily losing money on the island but that the inconvenience of operating a remote bank has likely impacted the bank's decision, coupled with other issues the bank created when it didn't offer loans to many local business operators.

"We have a number of fishing businesses in particular that Scotiabank didn't give loans to so that they could buy boats and gear after a policy change about 10 years ago," said Morse. "Those fishermen took their business elsewhere."

Protest organizer Gregg Russell held a public meeting the night before the protest to rally residents into action.

MP John Williamson of New Brunswick Southwest is currently writing a letter to Scotiabank's President and CEO asking for an intervention to stop the closure.

"It's clear that this decision was made far away in an office in Toronto," said Williamson. 

With just a matter of weeks before Grand Manan's Scotibank closes for good, Russell remains hopeful that he and his fellow islanders still have time to persuade Scotiabank to reverse their plans.

"If we do nothing, we will lose our bank, but if we do everything that is legal and ethical to fight for it, maybe--just maybe--we can save our bank," said Russell.

We reached out to Scotiabank for comment but did not hear back before broadcast time. Greg Russell says another protest is being planned at the legislature in about two week's time.