'Things have to change': Winnipeg neighbourhood association sounds alarm over exodus of businesses

North End exodus Businesses close up shop on Winnipeg’s Main Street. CTV's Danton Unger reports.

The North End BIZ is concerned over an exodus of businesses as the last bank in the area prepares to shut its doors.

The Access Credit Union on the corner of Main Street and Flora Avenue has informed its members the branch is set to close on Dec. 11.

"Traffic has definitely reduced at that branch over the last number of years, so that plays into it," Access Credit Union president and CEO Larry Davey told CTV News.

It's the latest of several businesses to leave Main Street.

"More and more businesses are leaving all the time, and it just harder and harder to attract new businesses," said Keith Horn, chair of the North End BIZ.

Horn has been running the Northern Hotel on Main Street for the past 27 years. He said he's witnessed the area take a downward turn.

"I don't mean to be so negative, I love this area," he said, pointing to crime as the main problem pushing businesses out of the area. "I feel safe, but I mean a lot of people that are around here don't feel safe. Walking up and down the street, they don't feel safe."

In less than 15 years, more than half the businesses within the North End BIZ catchment area – which stretches along Main Street from CPR tracks to St. John's Avenue – have disappeared.

"Things are just closing up all the time. In 2010, we had 109 businesses down here. Now, we have 57," he said.

Horn said the Access Credit Union is the last financial institution in the BIZ. Its closure will create a financial desert along the stretch of Main Street.

The Indigenous-owned Me-Dian Credit Union is in the 300 block of Selkirk Avenue, outside the zone and offers voting memberships to Indigenous clients while offering associate memberships to non-Indigenous members.

When asked about the closure, Coun. Ross Eadie (Mynarski) said he believed crime was a contributing factor.

"The crime and all the addictions, inappropriate actions by people who are all drugged up and so on, have scared all their customers away," he said. "They have a cash machine there. I won't even go there at night. It's way too dangerous out on the street."

In an interview with CTV News, Eadie said he had a message for those causing the crime.

"Stop. Enough is enough," he said. "You have no right to steal from small businesses or harass people just trying to do their banking so they have some money to go buy their groceries. It's got to stop."

When asked if crime contributed to the closure, Davey said the company looks at all aspects.

"We have had security issues crop up at different branches across the city, so I can't say we would single out that location as one that was strictly based on safety," he said.

Horn said between the burned-out or boarded-up buildings throughout the BIZ, he feels the area is being forgotten.

"This area has to be looked at again. It's one of the oldest parts of the city where most people came when they came to Winnipeg, this is the start of things, and we just seem to be neglecting it more and more."

Eadie said he wants to deal with the problem, but can't do it alone. He is calling for a revitalization plan that brings together all three levels of government to deal with the underlying causes of crime – similar to what is happening in the city's core.

Horn hopes that happens fast before even more business owners board up their shops and leave.

"Things have to change," he said.

As for the Access Credit Union location, customers are being transferred to other locations on Leila or further down Main Street. The company said staff at the location will be offered other positions.