'A big loss': Last bank pulls out of Lachine's Saint-Pierre neighbourhood
In the Saint-Pierre neighbourhood of Lachine, the only remaining financial institution is pulling out completely at the end of the month by removing its automatic teller machine.
The Caisse Desjardins closed its branch on St-Jacques Street last October and now is putting an end to the last of its services, its guichet.
"It's a big loss for the community," said David Marshall, director of Revitalisation Saint-Pierre.
He told CBC Montreal's Daybreak that the move may seem small, but it has a larger effect on his small neighbourhood located between the train tracks and Highway 20.
"There's no access to acquiring funds, making deposits, updating bankbooks," he said.
"And that may not seem like a big deal, but in a neighbourhood where there's no other financial institution, no other way of accessing funds...We're talking about 40 per cent low income families... that's forcing them to travel quite a distance."
Pockets of poverty
That means the next closest bank to Saint-Pierre — which is at the northern tip of Lachine — would be in Montreal West.
"I'm talking about a couple kilometres to the closest bank and nearly three kilometres to the closest Caisse," said Marshall. "It's really becoming a neighbourhood of pockets of poverty."
He said that when it comes to alternatives, it's slim pickings.
While there is an ATM in a nearby gas station, "charging $3 or $4 per transaction is quite a big deal for a lot of families that live in the neighbourhood."
Lachine Borough Mayor Claude Dauphin told CBC he offered to house a new Caisse ATM in one of the public buildings close by, but Desjardins didn't go for it.
While he understands that banks must make a profit, Dauphin said the decision is not good news for residents.
"We are not very satisfied about the situation, especially with our citizens and the elderly that are living in Saint-Pierre," said Dauphin.
A matter of viability
For their part, the Caisse Desjardins says they didn't take the decision to close lightly.
Spokesperson Annie Dupuis told CBC in an email that there were a number of factors that led to the closure — including a steady decrease in transactions at the branch in Saint-Pierre, the fact that the guichet needed to be upgraded and replaced, and the sale of the building in which it was housed.
She added that it wasn't viable to keep even the automatic teller operating when so many people have turned to online banking and that Desjardins even sent employees into seniors' residences in the area to teach them how to use the online services.
While Marshall said there was "no question" that viability is at the heart of the matter, he told Daybreak that if people aren't using the automatic teller as frequently, it could be because of its location between Duranceau and du Chalet avenues.
"If you're not comfortable walking the main street at night, you're going to use the guichet less frequently," he said.
