On January 22, 100 Mile House held a meeting to review options to prevent the closure of the local Bank of Montreal (BMO).
Roughly 70 people, mostly customers, gathered in the branch located at the Cariboo Mall to voice their concerns on the branch’s impending closure set for June 27, 2025.
A meeting with BMO’s regional vice president, Stephanie Partridge, was scheduled for January 22; however, the meeting was canceled on January 8, without an explanation.
Guy Wilton, a BMO customer of over 30 years in 100 Mile House, continued to organize the meeting for the concerned customers.
“The reason for this meeting is twofold,” says Wilton. “Number one, to find out if any of them [BMO customers] had been contacted by the Bank of Montreal. The second objective was to let people know about the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada(FCAC); and that they have guidelines that pertain to any financial institution in Canada when they are contemplating closing any of their outlets.”
Wilton says “it appears” that none or the majority of 100 Mile BMO customers did not receive any notice prior to the announcement of the branch’s closure in December 2024. Which would have followed the FCAC guidelines, according to Wilton.
During the meeting, customers were told how to file complaints through BMO’s and FCAC’s individual complaints department.
In BMO’s announcement, the corporation said that customers will be able to use Williams Lake’s branch as their home institution for face to face meetings. Customers will also have online banking options.
Wilton says customers do not want to be driving to Williams Lake for their banking needs. It shows the executives “don’t appreciate the impact” closing a small town branch has on its community, as people will end up “taking away business” from local 100 Mile House stores that thrive on community support.
Online banking was also an “unsatisfactory” option, leaving many of the senior customers concerned.
“The majority of the population of these towns are older. They’re less familiar with computer technology,” Wilton says. “Folks said ‘this scares me.’ When you introduce the possibilty, and reality of sophisticated online scamming, people have the potential to lose part of their life savings, and not be able to get to their branch quick enough to stop whatever process has begun through the scam.”
The 100 Mile House branch is not the only branch in small towns that are getting closed. BMO announced their Kitimat branch will also close one month after 100 Mile’s closures date.
Dawson Creek’s, McKenzie’s, and Enderby’s branches were also closed in 2023. Making customers feel as though branches in rural Western Canada are being targeted by the bank for closures.
As of the time of writing, BMO as not made a public comment to media, nor its customers concerning closures across rural Western Canada.
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