[URBAN NOTE] "Muskoka town set to lose its only bank"

[rfmcdonald]

Alex Ballingall's Toronto Star article looking at how the Muskoka resort town of MacTier is worried that its only bank might close down, thus dooming the community, makes for sad reading.

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.”