Open letter of complaint about BMO closure

Editor’s note: The original version of this letter is addressed to the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada in Ottawa.

I am writing to file my concern, to file a complaint, and to request a public hearing in Iqaluit on the decision made by the Bank of Montreal to close their Iqaluit branch and provide service from Pembroke, Ontario.

Pembroke, Ontario! Why not New York or Helsinki? They are certainly no less convenient!

The Bank of Montreal came in here and promised us service. I have lived in the North for 30 years and am well accustomed to fly-by-night operations.

Many of us were very careful before taking our business to the BOM. We got to know the employees that moved north. We built relationships. We developed a trust. We are now watching those same people being shamed and embarrassed by their company — who make these horrific decisions without any thought to the consequences it has, or any accountability to what others must now pay for their actions. A public hearing is the very least they can do.

The BOM has reportedly 5,000 customers in Nunavut. Our population is only 29,000 and more than 50 per cent of our population is under the age of 15. You do the math — where else in Canada do they carry that high a percentage of the available customers?

This comes down, pure and simple, to corporate greed. They cannot say they are not making a profit. They are not making as large a profit as they want. This is wrong.

Moreover, it is deceitful. I say deceitful because when they won my business they didn’t say — hey, we might close up one day, with little notice, and you’re going to have to pay thousands of dollars to move your business to another local bank. I feel like I’ve been swindled, that my business has been taken under false pretenses.

I, and every other Bank of Montreal customer in Nunavut now has to pay for their move and the fattening of their profit margin. It will cost me a minimum of $3,000.00 to move my mortgage two buildings to the left. I am outraged.

So, yes, please, hold a public hearing. These fat cats need to hear first-hand what the price of their corporate greed is.

Shame. Shame on you BOM. Even greater shame for what you have done to your own employees.

Mary-Lou Sutton
Iqaluit