I was told seven would be sufficient.
We are situated on the Salmon River, leading into Grand Lake, the largest freshwater lake in the province of New Brunswick. Recreational opportunities abound in our community. There are all kinds of activities, from birdwatching to cross-country skiing, four-wheeling, snowmobiling, and boating—extensive boating. We can have 60-foot boats tied up at the wharf and they can go anywhere in the world from there.
We have a population of about 1,250. It's probably stabilizing; however, we do have a mainstay. We have an employer, J.D. Irving, that employs 200 people within the boundaries of our small community, and there are about 300 to 350 people working in support industries outside, to support that mill operation. It has had a $38-million expansion in the last three years, and another $3-million one this summer. It's a substantial employer. In fact, we have jobs we cannot fill in the community, 15 at the moment. We have this Irving mill in the area only because of CN's accessibility. They ship their product out on CN every day, five days a week.
For services, we have all of the usual kinds of activities: an industrial park, Service New Brunswick, post office, hardware stores, insurance companies, two schools, Chipman Outreach, Chipman Community Care, and Care 'N' Share, which support various groups, from children to adults and seniors. Like my compatriot here, we have a very high number of senior citizens.
We have seven churches and a local winery, Sea Buckthorn—I shouldn't even mention the name. While I always say Chipman is open for business, Sea Buckthorn is developing. They started at 2,000, and they hope to go much higher in terms of production, 2,000 per month.
We have seniors complexes, some of them being built. As the new mayor, I am fostering that. I am talking to everybody in the country: come to Chipman and build, because we need housing.
We have a monthly newspaper, the Grand Lake Mirror. I've talked about the J.D. Irving mill within our community. We have a local call centre, Cloud5, which employs about 30 people. Our Chipman Outreach has about 50 people employed there.
We sent out a banking questionnaire to about 1,100 people in the surrounding area, because the bank closure today at four o'clock strongly impacts the further growth of our community. We have a committee which includes one of the MPs, a lawyer, a former deputy premier, and a variety of people who volunteered, including executives who are retired bankers. We got responses back with over 800 supporting it. You see some of the pictures from some of the press reports we've had, a couple of the support letters, including Jim Irving's letter of support for a banking institution, and pictures.
The Scotiabank closure highlights a number of issues facing all small communities across our country. Loss of banking capabilities for business further erodes local businesses. The unequal treatment of rural and urban citizens is to the detriment of rural citizens. The demographics of rural New Brunswick speak to the need of our aging population to access local banking and avoid being further victimized by keeping cash in their homes. There is the loss of secure night depositories at the bank which are used by churches, Service New Brunswick, the post office, and over 100 businesses. At a time of substantially increasing profits by our major banks, government is still allowing bank closures, especially in rural areas.
What does Chipman need? We need a secure night depositor, to be used by our many businesses, organizations, and churches; a local place to deposit funds and get basic financial services; and a place for banking for our current residents who don't do online banking. We need the amenities of basic banking, as it is critical to maintaining the vibrancy of our community. If you choose Chipman as a postal banking pilot site, we would be very appreciative. Moving government strategy toward postal banking, especially postal banking in Chipman, would be a great opportunity for our federal government to demonstrate unquestionable support of rural and isolated areas.
Thank you.