The biggest fear in MacTier these days is that, when the lone bank packs up and shuts down, the town will wither and die.

Everyone’s talking about it, from the lumber yards to the Foodland grocery store, Service Ontario branch and the Gordon Bay Marine shop. TD plans to shutter the only bank in town next spring, leaving MacTier without a bank for the first time in nearly 100 years. Residents in the town of just a few hundred worry the lack of a bank will push people to shop and do business elsewhere, while introducing a big inconvenience into their daily lives.

MacTier locals have been told they can do their banking 23 kilometres to the southeast in Bala, or in Parry Sound, which is about 40 kilometres north.

“You’re pulling the economic rug out from under our feet,” said Lorna Keall, who has lived in MacTier for more than 60 years and runs the Muskoka Station Store on High St., where she sells gifts and lottery tickets.

“It’s a huge concern for all of us,” she said. “The last thing you want to do is encourage people to go out of town for one thing, because they’ll do it all.”

In an emailed statement, TD spokesperson Alicia Johnson said there was a thorough business review before the bank made the “difficult decision” to merge the MacTier branch with their operation in Parry Sound.

“Customer needs are changing and Canadians are increasingly choosing to take advantage of convenient mobile, online and ATM options for their day-to-day banking activities,” she said. “We recognize the disappointment in the community and will continue to work individually with customers and businesses to address their specific banking needs.”

When residents of MacTier learned the bank would close, they clamoured to have it replaced with one of the bank’s ATMs, so they’re not left with nothing. But Johnson said TD isn’t going to put in an ATM because “there is not a business case for a new installation.”

The situation has incensed Paul Donaldson, the owner of Muskoka Lumber, who has banked at the MacTier TD for 40 years. He said he feels the bank is ignoring the concerns of the community, such as seniors who are worried about travelling out of town to make deposits or withdraw cash.

“They should have let people in the community know that there’s a problem, and then let the people in the community get behind the bank,” he said. “Banks should also be protectors of the community and not just in it for the shareholder.”

Banks have shuttered in small towns across Ontario and beyond in recent years. Marmora, a small town near Belleville, lost its only bank earlier this year. Another example is Avonmore, a hamlet southeast of Ottawa, which saw its only bank leave town more than a year ago. And in the U.S., Bank of America has reportedly closed 10 per cent of its branches since 2013.

John Aiken, a banking analyst with Barclays Capital in Toronto, said the closure of small town branches has emerged as a trend in the past five years. More people are banking online and on their phones, leading to less traffic in physical bank branches. Another factor, said Aiken, is that persistently low interest rates in Canada have meant that banks are making less money off loans.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

“While this one branch is a tragedy for that town, it’s not just in isolation. It’s not just the banks focusing on these small towns, the cost-cutting is being done (everywhere),” said Aiken.

That won’t staunch the bleeding pride in MacTier, at least according to Pam Jordan. She was the local postmaster for 30 years, and said having a bank is vital to the sense of completeness in a small town. Without it, the stature of home will seem smaller.

“When you have a small town and you can say, ‘I have a post office, a grocery store, a hardware store, a bank and a liquor store,’ you can say that you have a full-service town,” Jordan said.

“You take any one of those things away, and you don’t have it anymore.”

Read more about: