‘Another blow to the North End’ Access Credit Union to close Main-Flora branch in December By: Gabrielle Piché Posted: 6:29 PM CDT Friday, Aug. 23, 2024

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This article was published 23/08/2024 (735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Come December, another company will exit the North End Business Improvement Zone.

Keith Horn can subtract one from an ever-decreasing count: the BIZ chairman clocked 109 businesses within the Winnipeg group’s borders a decade ago; now, there’s 57.

Access Credit Union plans to close its branch at the corner of Main Street and Flora Avenue on Dec. 11.

To Horn, it’s “another blow to the North End.”

“This is another bigger one that’s leaving and nothing’s going to replace it,” he predicted Friday. “We don’t usually see too many new businesses coming … down here anymore.”

“We don’t usually see too many new businesses coming … down here anymore.”–Keith Horn

Carpathia Credit Union has occupied 950 Main St. for more than four decades. Carpathia merged with Access last year.

The branch had noted lower foot traffic before the merger, according to Adam Monteith, Access Credit Union chief marketing officer. “We have to evaluate every location to make sure it still makes sense.”

On Main Street, it didn’t. Customers in the area can travel to nearby Access branches, including locations on Leila Avenue and further down Main Street, Monteith said.

Since the beginning of 2024, Access has scheduled closures at 171 Donald St. and 1450 McPhillips St. in Winnipeg, and 1012 Manitoba Ave. in Selkirk. (Access has merged with several credit unions and counted 52 branches in March 2023.)

A number of factors may have contributed to the Main Street branch’s lower client count, Monteith offered: the rise in online banking, a lack of customers living close by and worries of neighbourhood safety and security.

Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) believes members were afraid to visit the Main Street credit union location. People are “acting out” — it’s creating problems for other businesses, too, he said.

“We haven’t found a solution to the social ills that are happening in the North End,” Eadie said. “It’s not just on Main Street.”

“We haven’t found a solution to the social ills that are happening in the North End. It’s not just on Main Street.”–Coun. Ross Eadie

Cyrae Moore and Taylor Addams have a front-row seat to the public impacts of the drug crisis in the Manitoba capital. The 23-year-olds work at the Winnipeg Trading Post, a retailer 700 metres north of the soon-to-close Main Street Access branch.

People shoot up and sometimes overdose on a daily basis near the store, the Trading Post staff said. The business’s door is locked and there’s a doorbell; still, giving benefit of the doubt to visitors has led to theft and aggressive encounters, they added.

In other cases, people enter the shop to escape harm’s way.

“Sometimes, people will come in here either bleeding from the head … physically hurt,” Moore said.

“It’s nice that they come to us to feel like a safe place,” she said. “At the same time, it shouldn’t have to be that way.”

Resources such as opioid overdose medication naloxone and needle-disposal units are needed, Addams said.

“The amount of containers for needles I’ve picked up — because kids could touch them outside — is absolutely ridiculous,” she said. “We have nowhere to put them, except back in the trash” and if people rifle through the garbage, those needles end up back on the street.

“We just hope that things get better and it becomes more safe,” Addams added. “There’s so many kids on the street … Seeing someone shooting up or someone smoking crack … it’s a huge influence on the future of the children.”

Horn feels the North End area is being neglected. Rubble across the street from the Northern Hotel, which he manages, has sat for almost two years after a building fire. “This wouldn’t happen in some other area.”

Neglect and rampant homelessness don’t bode well for customer attraction and, by extension, business attraction and retention, the BIZ leader said.

The business zone loses companies annually. People retire and close their operations; new ones, generally, don’t open, Horn said.

There are two banks left in the vicinity — Me-Dian Credit Union on Selkirk Avenue and Assiniboine Credit Union on McGregor Street — which Eadie applauded for sticking around.

They’re providing services to “the good people — and there’s lots of them — in the North End,” the city councillor said.

Eadie called for all levels of government to talk to neighbourhood social services organizations, such as the North End Community Renewal Corp., who “know what we need to do.”

Ownership of housing and opportunities for employment are among the issues to tackle, Eadie added. He’s hopeful about Indigenous-led organizations doing grassroots work in the area.

Leehee Hasid is hopeful, too.

One of the windows at Scooter City is boarded up from a break-in, but there have been fewer such attempts recently. Hasid, the shop’s general manager, attributes it to nearby residences being revamped for development.

Higher operating costs have hurt companies in the North End — it’s a contributing factor to local enterprises closing, Hasid said. Her family has conducted business at 1156 Main St. for 30 years.

“I love the area, I love the neighbourhood, I love the people,” Hasid said. “All you can do is hope that the future is brighter.”

gabrielle.piche@winnipegfreepress.com