NWT/ NUNAVUT - The Royal Bank of Canada has launched a program allowing Northerners in communities without a bank branch to open an account without spending hundreds of dollars on airfare to travel to a branch elsewhere in the territory.

The Royal Bank of Canada has begun a remote banking service for NWT and Nunavut communities without a bank branch, meaning residents will no longer have to fly elsewhere to start up an account. - Guy Quenneville/NNSL photo

However, one NWT chief says the bank should be doing more promotion in the communities to spread the word about the program.

Beginning last week, under what RBC is calling Remote Banking Services, Northerners with no bank in their community can now order an application package from the nearest branch.

Currently, only Yellowknife and Hay River in the NWT and Cambridge Bay, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit in Nunavut have an RBC branch.

The application package includes a form to be filled out by a member of the RCMP or a band chief who can vouch for the applicant's identity.

Following approval of the application, the new client will be mailed his or her client card.

"You get this card which functions as your debit card but it also enables you to use ATM machines or point-of-sale machines," said Dale Sturges, national director of aboriginal banking for RBC. "They would (also) be able to, if there was Internet in the community, set up online banking. They can use telephone banking."

Under the old system, potential clients had to travel to one of the company's Northern branches to sign up for an account.

For example, residents of Fort McPherson needing to travel by air to Inuvik (which has a CIBC bank branch) during break-up or freeze-up pay $274 before taxes for a round trip, said Ken Dalton, base manager Aklak Air in Inuvik.

"You have to make an appointment, find a way to go down there, and that's going to cost them," said Wilbert Firth, chief of Fort McPherson. "You have to fly in. It's a hardship. The elders who have to go down there - they don't know anything about making appointments and stuff."

The new system, said Sturges, "enables them to stay in their community without having to travel. They don't have to wait now. If they want to open an account, they don't have to wait until they're visiting an urban centre in order to do it."

Frank Andrew, chief of Tulita, said his community is in the same boat as Fort McPherson when it comes to banking.

"We don't have any bank in the community; we deal with CIBC in Norman Wells," said Andrew.

But he said RBC should be sending representatives to his community to explain the nuts and bolts of the new program.

"I think people might be interested if somebody would come forward and say, 'This is what I'm doing. How can we help to serve you?'" said Andrew. "They have to do that. You always have to see who you're talking to when you're dealing with something big like this."

Sturges said RBC staff at Northern branches have been briefed about the program, but information will only be mailed out to those who call the banks to request it.

Though bank representatives do visit the communities at various times during the year, there are currently no visits geared towards the new program planned at the moment, he added.