Arthur Milnes
Northern News Services

NNSL (Aug 26/98) - While the bank presidents on Toronto's Bay Street might be far away, Yellowknife city council has a message for them from the North that can be summed up in two words: slow down.

Councillors unanimously passed a motion Monday calling on Ottawa to delay approving the mergers of four of Canada's major banks into two until local concerns all across Canada are responded to.

Yellowknife wants Ottawa to disallow the mergers until means are in place to ensure banks are responsible to the communities in which they operate.

Put forward by Coun. Ben McDonald, the passage of the motion could mean Yellowknife is the first jurisdiction in Canada to officially express such a view. Efforts by the xxxYellowknifer Monday to find another example were unsuccessful.

"I think the message we're giving is that Canadians are concerned about the banking situation," McDonald said. "Mergers are not necessarily good for Canadians and we want to have a look at it before our politicians endorse it."

He also argued Canadians banks have a critical role to play in economic development in the North. The banks have to realize we are here and that we need capital for investment, he added.

And, pointing to record profits by the banks and their view these mergers are good for their competitive and financial health in the years ahead, McDonald argued Ottawa should be in no rush to rubber stamp the mergers.

"Our taking six months... to allow us to express our concerns is immensely reasonable," he said.

Coun. Kevin O'Reilly said he was concerned about what Yellowknife would look like in the post-merger world. "We've got five branches of banks here and by the end of this we could only have three," he said. "When I first arrived here banks were open Saturdays (and) they were open late three or four nights a week... In those years the service(s) have declined."

Others expressed concern about the smaller NWT communities -- most who don't even have a bank branch -- and how the mergers would affect them.