ACTUAL I TÉS • NEWS
Postal banking proposed for rural villages
Meeting on Pendleton Solar Residents of the village of Pendleton and other nearby communities, in both Alfred-Plantagenet Township and The Nation Municipality, have another chance to find out about a solar farm planned for the area. The Pendleton Energy Centre Limited Partnership will host the second public information and consultation meeting on the proposed Pendleton Solar Energy Centre (PSEC). The open house session is May 9, 5 to 8 p.m., at the Curran Community Centre, 819 Cartier Street, in the Village of Curran in Alfred-Plantagenet Township. The PSEC is a 12-megawatt solar energy installation located near the Village of Pendleton, at a site near the intersection of County Roads 2 and 19. More information on the project is at www.edf-en.ca/ project/pendleton-solar-energy-centre. Rural Business Summit This year’s annual Prescott-Russell Rural Busi- ness Summit will take place in Alfred, at the Alfred College campus, April 22 and 23. The two-day event continues the annual partnership between local community and business leaders and regional development agencies, to promote Prescott-Russell and its communities as locales for business investment ventures; to aid local businesses showcase themselves, their products and services; and to provide workshop sessions for participants with a variety of business lead- ers and experts in communications, marketing, entrepreunership, and other areas, who can offer advice to help local and regional busi- nesses and communities develop themselves. This year’s event features Guy Laflamme as keynote speaker. Laflamme heads the Ottawa 2017 Bureau, a not-for-profit group responsible for planning and production of the Canada 150 celebration in the city of Ottawa. – Gregg Chamberlain Plusieurs villages ruraux commeWendover ont vu leur caisse populaire locale et succursales bancaires fermer, dans le cadre d’une décision de gestion financière de la part du siège social. Les résidents de ces localités doivent maintenant se déplacer plus loin pour exercer des activités bancaires ordinaires. Le conseil des Comtés unis de Prescott et Russell commencera à faire pression auprès des municipalitésmembres de l’Ontario pour obtenir une résolution visant à convaincre le gouvernement fédéral d’installer une «banque postale», afin de permettre aux résidents ruraux ne pouvant se déplacer d’effectuer leurs opérations bancaires par l’entremise du bureau de Postes Canada.
Many rural villages like Wendover have seen their local caisse populaire and bank branches close down, as part of a financial management decision on the part of the head office. Residents in those communities now have further to travel to do ordinary banking business. The United Counties of Prescott-Russell council will start lobbying its fellow municipalities in Ontario for a resolution to convince the federal government for a “postal banking” setup to allow rural residents, with nowhere else to go, to do some of their banking through their local Canada Post outlet. —photo Gregg Chamberlain
GREGG CHAMBERLAIN gregg.chamberlain@eap.on.ca
management downsizing by the head offices. Plantagenet saw its RBC outlet shut down a couple of years ago.The villages of Clarence Creek and Wendover both lost their caisse populaire.The National Bank branch in the village of Alfred is due to close soon, leaving just the local caisse populaire outlet for that village. Both Desjardins and Dicaire met with senior government officials on the issue, during the recent Ontario Good Roads Asso- ciation meeting. Now they want to take the matter a step further. Both Warden Gary Barton and Mayor Desjardins noted that banks and other finan- cial institutions are pushing the concept of online banking more and more with their customers. Barton observed that he is asked every time he goes to do his own personal banking whether he has ever considered
online banking. “Call me old-fashioned,” Barton said, “but I like to talk to someone when I do my (banking) business.” Mayor Pierre Leroux, of Russell Town- ship, wondered whether postal banking was necessary when a grocery store or other local business could install an ABM (automatic banking machine) for simple withdrawal and deposit transactions. “Some villages have nomore stores,” ob- servedMayor Jeanne Charlebois of Hawkes- bury. “There is only the post office.” Counties council gave unanimous appro- val for administration to draft a resolution for the next UCPRmeeting, on postal banking, which counties council can then take to the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO) for further lobbying action.
An ABM in every rural post office? That could be part of the future for Canada Post if themayors of Prescott-Russell have their way. The United Counties of Prescott-Russell council (UCPR) approved plans to start a lobbying effort for “postal banking”, to help deal with the continuing elimination of rural banking outlets. Mayors Guy Desjardins of Clarence-Rockland and Fernand Dicaire of Alfred-Plantagenet brought the issue up du- ring theMarch 8 session of counties council. “It’s something that could be done,” said Dicaire. Bothmayors noted that in their ownmu- nicipalities, some villages have lost their sole banking outlet as a result of financial
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