First Nations Bank to open by spring
Det'on Cho Corporation wins bid to complete renovations at Yk Centre West
Daron Letts
Northern News Services
Published Wednesday, February 12, 2014
SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
The territory's inaugural First Nations Bank branch will open in downtown Yellowknife by this spring, according to bank CEO and chairperson Keith Martell.
Keith Martell: First Nations Bank CEO says sub-branches may be considered for other NWT communities after the full-service Yellowknife branch is established this spring. - Daron Letts/NNSL photo |
During the board's annual shareholders' meeting in Yellowknife last April, Martell announced the chartered national bank would break into the NWT sometime in the last quarter of 2013. Its debut was delayed by a longer-than-expected design phase.
While there is a 30-to-60-day margin of error for construction projects in the south, Martell said, in the North it is closer to 45 to 90 days.
"We all want it open as soon as possible,"
Martell said. "We're in the early stages of starting to hire staff. We still expect it to be open this spring sometime - before summer."
The branch will feature a new, open-concept interior layout that will reflect Canadian aboriginal aesthetics from across the country. Elements of the new branding will be incorporated in future branches, and introduced to existing branches.
"We've done a whole revamp of our branch design," Martell said.
The new look will distinguish the Yellowknife branch from its former partner, TD Canada Trust, and other Canadian banks.
First Nations Bank, which began operating in 1997 as a partnership between Saskatchewan Indian Equity Foundation and TD Bank (now TD Canada Trust), broke away from TD in 2012. TD now controls just under 20 per cent of the bank's shares. The remaining 80 per cent is owned by Canadian aboriginal organizations, including the Gwich'in Settlement Corporation, which owns more than seven per cent.
Martell said structural work on the floor of the 914-square-metre space on 48 Street, required to support the vaults and other heavy equipment, is complete.
Det'on Cho Corporation has been contracted to complete the interior renovations, which are in their early stages, he said, adding sub-trades have just been tendered.
The first of three sub-branches, or community banking centres, in Nunavut is scheduled to be installed in Baker Lake later this month, with two more to follow in Pond Inlet and Kugluktuk by spring. Two of the community banking centres, located in Arctic Co-op grocery stores, will be managed from Iqaluit's full-service branch, which was established in 2010.
Managers are in the midst of training two staff hired from Baker Lake, said John Wolfe, assistant manager of the Iqaluit branch, which employs five full-time staff and one casual worker.
Martell said community banking centres may fit into some communities in the NWT, after the bank determines demand following the launch of the Yellowknife branch.
"Yellowknife is really our hub and that's going to get us operating in the territory much like Iqaluit," he said. "Once we're on the ground with our hub branch we can start working from there."
